HISTORIC 


INVENTION  SI 

RUPERT  S.HOLLAND 


THE  HISTORIC 

SERIES  FOR 
YOUNG  PEOPLE 


THE  HISTORIC 

SERIES  FOR 
YOUNG  PEOPLE 


Historic  Inventions 


By 
RUPERT  S.  HOLLAND 

Author  of  "Historic  Boyhoods"  "Historic  Girlhoods" 
"  Builden  of  United  Italy"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1911,  by 

GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  AND  COMPANY 

Published  August,  1911 


All  rights  reserved 
Printed  in  U.S.  A. 


To 

y.  ir.  H. 


CONTENTS 

I.  GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     .         .         9 

II.  PALISSY  AND  His  ENAMEL       ....       42 

III.  GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  53 

IV.  WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE       ...       70 
V.  ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY    .         .       84 

VI.  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN    ...       96 

VII.  FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT          .         .              in 

VIII.  DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP          .         .         .126 

IX.  STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE           .         .     140 

X.  MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  ....     168 

XL  McCoRMICK  AND  THE  REAPER            *            .            .189 

XII.  HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE    .            .            .       2O6 

XIII.  BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE      .         .         .         .215 

XIV.  EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT  .         .         ,     233 
XV.  MARCONI  AND  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH        .     26  [ 

XVI.  THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP    .         .         .     273 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Gutenberg  Takes  the  First  Proof         .         .         .  Frontispiece 

Palissy  the  Potter    After   an    Unsuccessful 

Experiment         ....           Facing  page  46 

Galileo's  Telescope    ..,!..""  58 

Watt  First  Tests  the  Power  of  Steam           .     "        "  72 

S.r  Richard  Arkwright         ....""  88 

The  Inventor  of  the  Cotton  Gin           .         .     "        "  104 

The  Clermont,  the  First  Steam  Packet  .          .     "         "  1 20 

The  Davy  Safety  Lamp      .         .         .         .     "        "  136 

One  of  the  First  Locomotives     .         .         .     "        "  156 

Morse  and  the  First  Telegraph    .         .         .     "        "  180 

The  Earliest  Reaper  .         ...         .     «'        "  194 

Elias  Howe's  Sewing-Machine    .          .         ,     "         "  210 

The  First  Telephone           .         .         .         .     "        "  222 

Edison  and  the  Early  Phonograph         .         .     "        "  258 

Wireless  Station   in    New  York  City  Show- 
ing the  Antenna          ....""  268 

The  Wright  Brothers'  Airship    .         .         .     «         «  281 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS 

About  1400-1468 

THE  free  cities  of  mediaeval  Germany  were  continu- 
ally torn  asunder  by  petty  civil  wars.  The  nobles, 
who  despised  commerce,  and  the  burghers,  who  lived 
by  it,  were  always  fighting  for  the  upper  hand,  and  the 
laboring  people  sided  now  with  one  party,  and  now 
with  the  other.  After  each  uprising  the  victors  usually 
banished  a  great  number  of  the  defeated  faction  from 
the  city.  So  it  happened  that  John  Gutenberg,  a 
young  man  of  good  family,  who  had  been  born  in 
Mainz  about  1400,  was  outlawed  from  his  home,  and 
went  with  his  wife  Anna  to  live  in  the  city  of  Stras- 
burg,  which  was  some  sixty  miles  distant  from  Mainz. 
He  chose  the  trade  of  a  lapidary,  or  polisher  of  precious 
stones,  an  art  which  in  that  age  was  held  in  almost 
as  high  esteem  as  that  of  the  painter  or  sculptor.  He 
had  been  well  educated,  and  his  skill  in  cutting  gems, 
as  well  as  his  general  learning  and  his  interest  in  all 
manner  of  inventions,  drew  people  of  the  highest  stand- 
ing to  his  little  workshop,  which  was  the  front  room 
of  his  dwelling  house. 

One  evening  after  supper,  as  Gutenberg  and  his 
wife  were  sitting  in  the  room  behind  the  shop,  he 
chanced  to  pick  up  a  playing-card.  He  studied  it  very 
carefully,  as  though  it  were  new  to  him.  Presently 


io  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

his  wife  looked  up  from  her  sewing,  and  noticed  how 
much  absorbed  he  was.  "  Prithee,  John,  what  marvel 
dost  thou  find  in  that  card?"  said  she.  "One  would 
think  it  the  face  of  a  saint,  so  closely  dost  thou  regard 
it." 

"  Nay,  Anna,"  he  answered  thoughtfully,  "  but  didst 
thou  ever  consider  how  the  picture  on  this  card  was 
made?" 

"  I  suppose  it  was  drawn  in  outline,  and  then  painted, 
as  other  pictures  are." 

"But  there  is  a  better  way,"  said  Gutenberg,  still 
studying  the  playing-card.  "  These  lines  were  first 
marked  out  on  a  wooden  block,  and  then  the  wood  was 
cut  away  on  each  side  of  them,  so  that  they  were  left 
raised.  The  lines  were  then  smeared  with  ink  and 
pressed  on  the  cardboard.  This  way  is  shorter,  Anna, 
than  by  drawing  and  painting  each  picture  separately, 
because  when  the  block  is  once  engraved  it  can  be 
used  to  mark  any  number  of  cards." 

Anna  took  the  playing-card  from  her  husband's 
hand.  It  represented  a  figure  that  was  known  as  the 
Knave  of  Bells.  "  It's  an  unsightly  creature,"  she  said, 
studying  it,  "  and  not  to  be  compared  with  our  picture 
of  good  St.  Christopher  on  the  wall  yonder.  Surely 
that  was  made  with  a  pen?" 

"  Nay,  it  was  made  from  an  engraved  block,  just  like 
this  card,"  said  the  young  lapidary. 

"  St.  Christopher  made  in  that  way  !  "  exclaimed  his 
wife.  "  Then  what  a  splendid  art  it  must  be,  if  it  keeps 
the  pictures  of  the  blessed  saints  for  us  !  " 

The  picture  of  the  saint  was  a  curious  colored  wood- 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     n 

cut,  showing  St.  Christopher  carrying  the  child  Jesus 
across  the  water.  Under  it  was  an  inscription  in  Latin, 
and  the  date  1423. 

"Yes,  thou  art  right,  dear,"  Gutenberg  went  on. 
"  Pictures  like  that  are  much  to  be  prized,  for  they  fill 
to  some  extent  the  place  of  books,  which  are  so  rare 
and  cost  so  much.  But  there  are  much  more  valuable 
pictures  in  the  Cathedral  here  at  Strasburg.  Dost 
thou  remember  the  jewels  the  Abbot  gave  me  to 
polish  for  him  ?  When  I  carried  them  back,  he  took 
me  into  the  Cathedral  library,  and  showed  me  several 
books  filled  with  these  engraved  pictures,  and  they 
were  much  finer  than  our  St.  Christopher.  The  books 
i  remember  were  the  '  Ars  Memorandi,'  the  '  Ars  Mori- 
endi,'  and  the  '  Biblia  Pauperum,'  and  the  last  had  no 
less  than  forty  pictures,  with  written  explanations  un- 
derneath." 

"  That  is  truly  wonderful,  John  !  And  what  are  they 
about?" 

"  The  '  Biblia  Pauperum  '  means  '  Bible  for  the  Poor/ 
and  is  a  series  of  scenes  from  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments." 

"  I  think  I've  heard  of  it ;  but  I  wish  you'd  tell  me 
more  about  it." 

John  leaned  forward,  his  keen  face  showing  unusual 
interest.  "  The  forty  pictures  in  it  were  made  by  press- 
ing engraved  blocks  of  wood  on  paper,  just  like  the  St. 
Christopher,  or  this  playing-card.  The  lines  are  all 
brown,  and  the  pictures  are  placed  opposite  each  other, 
with  their  blank  backs  pasted  together,  so  they  form 
one  strong  leaf." 


12  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

"  And  how  big  are  the  pictures  ? 

"  They  are  ten  inches  high  and  seven  or  eight  inches 
wide,  and  each  is  made  up  of  three  small  pictures,  sep- 
arated by  lines.  More  than  that,  there  are  four  half- 
length  figures  of  prophets,  two  above  and  two  below 
the  larger  pictures.  Then  there  are  Latin  legends  and 
rhymes  at  the  bottom  of  each  page." 

"And  all  that  is  cut  on  wood  first?"  said  Anna, 
doubtfully.  "  It  sounds  almost  like  a  miracle." 

"  Aye.  I  looked  very  closely,  and  the  whole  book  is 
made  from  blocks,  like  the  playing-card." 

"  Art  thou  sure  it's  not  the  pencraft  of  some  skilful 
scribe  ?  " 

"  Assuredly  I  am.  Dost  thou  see,  Anna,  how  much 
better  these  blocks  are  than  the  slower  way  of  copying 
by  hand  ?  When  they're  once  cut  many  books  can 
be  printed  as  easily  as  one." 

"  Aye,"  answered  his  wife,  "  and  they  will  be  cheaper 
than  the  works  written  out  by  the  scribes,  and  still  be 
so  costly  that  whoever  can  make  them  ought  to  grow 
rich  from  the  sale.  If  thou  canst  do  it,  it  will  make  thy 
fortune.  Thou  art  so  ingenious.  Canst  thou  not  make 
a  '  Bible  for  the  Poor '  ?  " 

"  Little  wife,  thou\  must  be  dreaming  ! "  But  John 
Gutenberg  smiled,  for  he  saw  that  she  had  discovered 
the  thought  that  had  been  in  his  mind. 

"  But  couldst  thou  not  ?  "  Anna  persisted.  "  Thou 
art  so  good  at  inventing  better  ways  of  doing 
things." 

Gutenberg  laughed  and  shook  his  head.  "  I  have 
found  new  ways  to  polish  stones  and  mirrors,"  said 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     13 

he,  "  but  those  are  in  my  line  of  work.  This  is  quite 
outside  it,  and  much  more  difficult" 

Nothing  more  was  said  on  the  subject  that  night,  but 
Anna  could  see,  as  day  followed  day,  that  her  husband 
was  planning  something,  and  she  felt  very  certain  that 
he  was  thinking  out  a  way  of  making  books  more 
quickly  than  by  the  old  process  of  copying  them  word 
for  word  by  hand. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  young  lapidary  surprised  his 
wife  by  showing  her  a  pile  of  playing-cards.  "  See  my 
handicraft,"  said  he.  "  Aren't  these  as  good  as  the 
Knave  of  Bells  I  gave  thee  ?  " 

She  looked  at  them,  delight  in  her  eyes.  "  They  are 
very  much  better,  John.  The  lines  are  much  clearer, 
and  the  color  brighter." 

"  Still,  that  is  only  a  step.  It  is  of  little  use  unless  I 
can  cut  letters,  and  press  them  on  vellum  as  I  did  these 
cards.  I  shall  try  thy  name,  Anna,  and  see  if  I  cannot 
engrave  it  here  on  wood." 

He  took  a  small  wooden  tablet  from  the  work-table 
in  his  shop,  and  marking  certain  lines  upon  it,  cut  away 
the  wood  so  that  it  left  a  stamp  of  his  wife's  name. 
Brushing  ink  over  the  raised  letters  he  pressed  the 
wood  upon  a  sheet  of  paper,  and  then,  lifting  it  care- 
fully, showed  her  her  own  name  printed  upon  the  paper. 

"Wonderful!"  she  cried.  "The  letters  have  the 
very  likeness  of  writing  ! " 

"  Aye,"  agreed  Gutenberg,  looking  at  the  four  letters, 
"  it  is  not  a  failure.  I  think  with  patience  and  persever- 
ance I  could  even  impress  a  copy  of  our  picture  of  St. 
Christopher.  It  must  have  been  made  from  some 


i4  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

manner  of  engraved  block.  See."  He  took  the  rude 
print  from  the  wall,  and  showed  her  on  the  back  of  it 
the  marks  of  the  stylus,  or  burnisher,  by  which  it  had 
been  rubbed  upon  the  wood.  "  Thou  mayst  be  sure 
from  this  that  these  lines  were  not  produced  by  a  pen, 
as  in  ordinary  writing,"  said  he. 

"  Well,"  said  Anna,  "  it  would  surely  be  a  pious  act 
to  multiply  pictures  of  the  holy  St.  Christopher." 

Encouraged  by  his  wife's  great  interest,  and  spurred 
on  by  the  passion  for  invention,  Gutenberg  now  set 
himself  seriously  to  study  the  problem  of  engraving. 
First  of  all  he  found  it  very  difficult  to  find  the  right 
kind  of  wood.  Some  kinds  were  too  soft  and  porous, 
others  were  liable  to  split  easily.  Finally  he  chose  the 
wood  of  the  apple-tree,  which  had  a  fine  grain,  was 
dense  and  compact,  and  firm  enough  to  stand  the 
process  of  engraving.  Another  difficulty  was  the  lack 
of  proper  tools ;  but  he  worked  at  these  until  his  box 
was  supplied  with  a  stock  of  knives,  saws,  chisels,  and 
gravers  of  many  different  patterns.  Then  he  started  to 
draw  the  portrait  of  the  saint. 

At  his  first  attempt  he  made  the  picture  and  the  in- 
scription that  went  with  it  on  the  same  block,  but  as 
soon  as  he  had  finished  it  a  better  idea  occurred  to 
him.  The  second  time  he  drew  the  picture  and  the  in- 
scription on  separate  blocks.  "  That's  an  improve- 
ment," he  said  to  his  wife,  "  for  I  can  draw  the  picture 
and  the  letters  better  separately,  and  if  I  want  I  can  use 
different  colored  inks  for  printing  the  two  parts."  Then 
he  cut  the  wood  away  from  the  drawings,  and  inking 
them,  pressed  them  upon  the  paper.  The  result  was  a 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     15 

much  clearer  picture  than  the  old  "St.  Christopher" 
had  been. 

He  studied  his  work  with  care.  "  So  far  so  good," 
said  he,  "  but  it's  not  yet  perfect.  The  picture  can't 
be  properly  printed  without  thicker  ink.  This  flows  too 
easily,  and  even  using  the  greatest  care  I  can  hardly 
keep  from  blotting  it." 

He  had  to  make  a  great  many  experiments  to  solve 
this  difficulty  of  the  ink.  At  last  he  found  that  a  prep- 
aration of  oil  was  best.  He  could  vary  the  color  accord- 
ing to  the  substances  he  used  with  this.  Umber  gave 
him  lines  of  a  darkish  brown  color,  lampblack  and  oil 
gave  him  black  ink.  At  first  he  used  the  umber  chiefly, 
in  imitation  of  the  old  drawings  that  he  was  copying. 

When  his  ink  was  ready  he  turned  again  to  his  in- 
terested wife.  "  Now  thou  canst  help  me,"  said  he. 
"  Stuff  and  sew  this  piece  of  sheepskin  for  me,  while  I 
get  the  paper  ready  for  the  printing." 

Anna  had  soon  done  as  he  asked.  Then  Gutenberg 
added  a  handle  to  the  stuffed  ball.  "  I  need  this  to 
spread  the  ink  evenly  upon  the  block,"  said  he.  "  One 
more  servant  of  my  new  art  is  ready." 

He  had  ground  the  ink  upon  a  slab.  Now  he  dipped 
his  printer's  dabber  in  it,  and  spread  the  ink  over  the 
wood.  Then  he  laid  the  paper  on  it,  and  pressed  it 
down  with  the  polished  handle  of  one  of  his  new  grav- 
ing tools.  He  lifted  it  carefully.  The  picture  was  a 
great  improvement  over  his  first  attempt.  "  This  ink 
works  spendidly ! "  he  exclaimed  in  delight. 

"  Now  I  shall  want  a  picture  of  St.  Christopher  in 
every  room  in  the  house,"  said  Anna. 


1 6  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

"  But  what  shall  I  do  ?  "  said  Gutenberg.  "  I  can't 
afford  the  time  and  money  to  make  these  pictures, 
unless  I  can  sell  them  in  some  way." 

"And  canst  thou  not  do  that?" 

"  I  know  of  no  way  at  present ;  but  I  will  hang  them 
on  the  wall  of  the  shop,  and  perhaps  some  of  my 
customers  will  see  them  and  ask  about  them." 

The  young  lapidary  was  poor,  and  he  had  spent  part 
of  his  savings  in  working  out  his  scheme  of  block-print- 
ing. He  could  give  no  more  time  to  this  now,  but  he 
hung  several  copies  of  the  "  St.  Christopher "  in  his 
front  room.  Several  days  later  a  young  woman, 
stopping  at  Gutenberg's  shop  for  her  dowry  jewels, 
noticed  the  pictures.  "What  are  those?"  said  she. 
"  The  good  saint  would  look  well  on  our  wall  at  home. 
If  thou  wilt  wrap  the  picture  up  and  let  me  take  it  home 
I  will  show  it  to  my  husband,  and  if  he  approves  I  will 
send  thee  the  price  of  it  to-morrow." 

Gutenberg  consented,  and  the  next  day  the  woman 
sent  the  money  for  the  "  St.  Christopher."  A  few  days 
later  it  happened  that  several  people,  calling  at  the 
shop  to  buy  gems,  chose  to  purchase  pictures  instead. 
Anna  was  very  much  pleased  by  the  sales,  and  told  her 
husband  so  at  supper  that  evening.  But  he  was  less 
satisfied.  "  In  spite  of  the  sales  I  have  lost  money  to- 
day," said  he.  "Those  who  bought  the  prints  had 
meant  to  buy  jewels  and  mirrors,  and  if  they  had  done 
so  I  should  have  made  a  bigger  profit.  The  pictures 
take  people's  attention  from  the  gems,  and  so  hurt  my 
business. " 

"  But  may  it  not  be  that  the  printing  will  pay  thee 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     17 

better  than  the  sale  of  jewels,  if  thou  wilt  keep  on 
with  it?"  suggested  the  hopeful  wife.  "How  soon 
shalt  thou  go  to  the  Cathedral  with  the  Abbot's 
jewels  ?  " 

"  As  soon  as  I  have  finished  the  polishing.  Engrav- 
ing these  blocks  has  kept  me  back  even  in  that." 

"  When  thou  dost  go  take  some  of  thy  prints  with 
thee,"  begged  Anna,  "  and  see  what  the  Father  has  to 
say  about  them." 

By  working  hard  Gutenberg  had  the  Abbot's  jewels 
finished  two  days  later,  and  he  took  them  with  several 
of  his  prints  to  the  Cathedral.  He  was  shown  into  the 
library,  where  often  a  score  of  monks  were  busied  in 
making  copies  of  old  manuscripts.  He  delivered  the 
jewels  to  the  Abbot,  and  then  showed  him  the  pictures. 

"  Whose  handiwork  is  this  ?  "  asked  the  Father. 

But  Gutenberg  was  not  quite  ready  to  give  away  his 
secret,  and  so  he  answered  evasively,  "  The  name  of 
the  artisan  does  not  appear." 

"  Where  didst  thou  obtain  them  ?  "  asked  the  Abbot. 

"  I  pray  thee  let  me  keep  that  also  a  secret,"  an- 
swered Gutenberg. 

The  Abbot  looked  them  over  carefully.  "  I  will  take 
them  all,"  said  he.  "  They  will  grace  the  walls  of  our 
library,  and  tend  to  preserve  us  from  evil." 

The  young  jeweler  was  very  much  pleased,  and  hur- 
ried home  to  tell  his  wife  what  had  happened.  She  was 
delighted.  "  Now  thou  art  in  a  fair  way  to  grow  rich," 
said  she. 

But  Gutenberg  was  by  nature  cautious.  "We 
mustn't  forget,"  he  answered,  "  that  the  steady  income 


i8  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

of  a  regular  trade  is  safer  to  rely  on  than  occasional 
success  in  other  lines." 

A  few  days  later  a  young  man  named  Andrew 
Dritzhn  called  at  Gutenberg's  shop,  and  asked  if  he 
might  come  and  learn  the  lapidary's  trade.  Thereto- 
fore Gutenberg  had  had  no  assistants,  but,  on  thinking 
the  matter  over,  he  decided  that  if  he  had  a  good 
workman  with  him  he  would  have  more  time  to  study 
the  art  of  printing.  So  he  engaged  Dritzhn.  Soon 
after  this  the  new  apprentice  introduced  two  young 
friends  of  his,  who  also  begged  for  the  chance  to  learn 
how  to  cut  gems  and  set  them,  and  how  to  polish 
Venetian  glass  for  mirrors  and  frame  them  in  carved 
and  decorated  copper  frames.  Gutenberg  agreed  and 
these  two  others,  named  Hielman  and  Riffe,  came  to 
work  with  him. 

The  shop  was  now  very  busy,  with  the  three  appren- 
tices and  the  master  workman  all  occupied.  But  Gu- 
tenberg was  anxious  to  keep  his  new  project  secret,  and 
so  he  fitted  up  the  little  back  room  as  a  shop,  and  spent 
his  evenings  working  there  with  Anna. 

On  his  next  visit  to  the  Cathedral  he  came  home  with 
a  big  package  under  his  arm.  He  unwrapped  it,  and 
showed  Anna  a  large  volume.  "  See,"  said  he,  "  this 
is  the  '  History  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist.'  The  Abbot 
gave  it  to  me  in  return  for  some  more  copies  of  my  St. 
Christopher.  It  is  written  on  vellum  with  a  pen,  and 
all  the  initial  letters  are  illuminated.  There  are  sixty- 
three  pages,  and  some  patient  monk  has  spent  months, 
aye,  perhaps  years,  in  making  it.  But  I  have  a  plan  to 
engrave  it  all,  just  as  I  did  the  picture." 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     19 

44  Engrave  a  whole  book !     That  would  be  a  miracle ! " 

"  I  believe  I  can  do  it.  And  when  once  the  sixty- 
three  blocks  are  cut,  a  block  to  a  page,  I  can  print  a 
score  of  the  books  as  easily  as  one  copy." 

"  Then  thou  canst  sell  books  as  well  as  the  monks  I 
And  when  the  blocks  are  done  it  may  not  take  more 
than  a  day  to  make  a  book,  instead  of  months  and 
years." 

So  John  Gutenburg  set  to  work  with  new  enthusiasm. 
He  needed  a  very  quiet  place  in  which  to  carry  out 
his  scheme,  and  more  room  than  he  had  at  home. 
It  is  said  he  found  such  a  place  in  the  ruined  cloisters 
of  the  Monastery  of  St.  Arbogast  in  the  suburbs  of  Stras- 
burg.  Thither  he  stole  away  whenever  he  could  leave 
the  shop,  and  not  even  Anna  went  with  him,  nor  even 
to  her  did  he  tell  what  he  was  doing.  At  last  he 
brought  home  the  tools  he  had  been  making,  and 
started  to  cut  the  letters  of  the  first  pages  of  the  "  His- 
tory of  St.  John."  Night  after  night  he  worked  at  it, 
until  a  great  pile  of  engraved  blocks  was  done. 

Then  one  evening  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door  of 
the  living-room,  and  before  he  could  answer  it  the  door 
was  opened,  and  the  two  apprentices,  Dritzhn  and  Hiel- 
man,  came  in.  They  saw  their  master  bending  over 
wooden  blocks,  a  pile  of  tools,  and  the  open  pages  of 
the  History.  "What  is  this?"  exclaimed  Dritzhn. 
"  Some  new  mystery  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  explain  now,"  said  the  confused  inventor. 

"  But  thou  promised  to  teach  us  all  thy  arts  for  the 
money  we  pay  thee,"  objected  Hielman,  who  was  of 
an  avaricious  turn  of  mind. 


20  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

"  No,  only  the  trade  of  cutting  gems  and  shaping 
mirrors." 

"We  understood  we  paid  thee  for  all  thy  teaching," 
objected  the  apprentice.  "'Tis  only  fair  we  should 
have  our  money's  worth." 

Gutenberg  thought  a  moment.  "  This  work  must  be 
done  in  quiet,"  said  he,  "and  must  be  kept  an  absolute 
secret  for  a  time.  But  I  do  need  money  to  carry  it  on 
rightly." 

This  made  Dritzhn  more  eager  than  ever  to  learn 
what  the  work  was.  "  We  can  keep  thy  secret,"  said 
he,  "  furnish  funds,  and  perhaps  help  in  the  busi- 
ness." 

Gutenberg  had  misgivings  as  to  the  wisdom  of  in- 
creasing his  confidants,  but  he  finally  decided  to  trust 
them.  First  he  pledged  each  to  absolute  secrecy.  Then 
he  produced  his  wooden  cuts,  and  explained  in  detail 
how  he  had  made  them.  Both  the  apprentices  showed 
the  greatest  interest.  "  Being  a  draughtsman,  I  can 
help  with  the  figures,"  said  Dritzhn. 

"  Yes,"  agreed  Gutenberg,  "  but  just  now  I  am 
chiefly  busy  in  cutting  blocks  for  books." 

"  Books ! "  exclaimed  the  apprentice. 

"  Yes.  I  have  found  a  new  way  of  imprinting  them." 
Then  he  showed  them  what  he  was  doing  with  the 
History. 

Dritzhn  was  amazed.  "  There  should  be  a  fortune  in 
this ! "  said  he.  "  But  will  not  this  art  do  away  with  the 
old  method  of  copying  ?  " 

"In  time  it  may,"  agreed  the  inventor.  "That's 
one  reason  why  we  must  keep  it  secret.  Other- 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     21 

wise  the  copyists  might  try  to  destroy  what  I  have 
done." 

As  a  result  of  this  interview  a  contract  was  drawn  up 
between  Gutenberg  and  his  apprentices,  according  to 
the  terms  of  which  each  apprentice  was  to  pay  the  in- 
ventor two  hundred  and  fifty  florins.  The  work  was  to 
be  kept  absolutely  secret,  and  in  case  any  of  the  partners 
should  die  during  the  term  of  the  agreement  the  sur- 
vivors should  keep  the  business  entirely  to  themselves, 
on  payment  of  one  hundred  florins  to  the  heirs  of  the 
deceased  partner.  Riffe,  the  third  apprentice,  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  business,  and  after  that  the  four  took 
turns  looking  after  the  jewelry  shop  and  working  over 
the  blocks  for  the  History. 

But  the  pupils  were  not  so  well  educated  as  the  mas- 
ter. They  could  not  read,  and  had  to  be  taught  how 
to  draw  the  different  letters.  They  were  clumsy  in  cut- 
ting the  lines,  and  spoiled  block  after  block.  Guten- 
berg was  very  patient  with  them.  Again  and  again  he 
would  throw  away  a  spoiled  block  and  show  them  how 
the  letters  should  be  cut  properly. 

In  time  the  blocks  were  all  finished.  "  Now  I  can 
help,"  said  Anna.  "Thou  must  let  me  take  the  im- 
pressions." 

"  So  thou  shalt,"  her  husband  answered.  "  To-night 
we  will  fold  and  cut  the  paper  into  the  right  size  for  the 
pages,  and  grind  the  umber  for  ink.  To-morrow  we 
will  begin  to  print  the  leaves." 

The  following  day  they  all  took  turns  making  the 
impressions.  Page  after  page  came  out  clear  and  true. 
Then  Anna  started  to  paste  the  blank  sides  of  the  sheets 


22  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

together,  for  the  pages  were  only  printed  on  one  side. 
In  a  week  a  pile  of  the  Histories  was  printed  and 
bound,  and  ready  to  be  sold. 

The  jewelers  had  little  time  to  offer  the  books  to  the 
wealthy  people  of  the  city,  and  so  Gutenberg  engaged 
a  young  student  at  the  Cathedral,  Peter  Schoeffer  by 
name,  to  work  for  him.  The  first  week  he  sold  two 
copies,  and  one  other  was  sold  from  the  shop.  That 
made  a  good  beginning,  but  after  that  it  was  more 
difficult  to  find  buyers,  and  the  firm  began  to  grow 
doubtful  of  their  venture. 

The  poor  people  of  Strasburg  could  not  read,  and 
could  not  have  afforded  to  buy  the  books  in  any  event, 
the  nobility  were  hard  to  reach,  and  the  clergy,  who  made 
up  the  reading  class  of  the  age,  were  used  to  copying 
such  manuscripts  as  they  needed.  But  this  situation 
did  not  prevent  Gutenberg  from  continuing  with  his 
work.  He  knew  that  the  young  men  who  were  study- 
ing at  the  Cathedral  had  to  copy  out  word  for  word  the 
"Donatus,"  or  manual  of  grammar  they  were  required 
to  learn.  So  the  firm  set  to  work  to  cut  blocks  and 
print  copies  of  this  book.  When  they  were  finished 
they  sold  more  readily  than  the  History  had  done,  and 
the  edition  of  fifty  copies  was  soon  disposed  of.  But 
by  that  time  all  the  scholars  of  the  city  were  supplied, 
and  it  was  very  difficult  to  send  the  books  to  other 
cities.  There  were  no  newspapers,  and  no  means  of 
advertising,  and  the  only  practical  method  of  sale  was 
to  show  the  book  to  possible  purchasers,  and  point  out 
its  merits  to  them.  So  Gutenberg  turned  to  two  other 
books  that  were  used  by  the  monks,  and  printed  them. 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     23 

One  was  called  the  "  Ars  Memorandi,"  or  "  Art  of  Re- 
membering," and  the  other  the  "Ars  Moriendi,"  or 
"  Art  of  Knowing  How  to  Die." 

Whenever  he  printed  a  new  book  Gutenberg  took  it 
to  the  Cathedral  to  show  the  priests.  He  carried  the 
"  Ars  Moriendi "  there,  and  found  the  Abbot  in  the 
library,  looking  over  the  manuscripts  of  several  monks. 

"  Good-morning,  my  son,"  said  the  Abbot.  "  Hast 
thou  brought  us  more  of  thy  magical  books  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  magic,  Father ;  it  is  simply  patience  that 
has  done  it,"  said  Gutenberg,  handing  the  Abbot  a 
copy  of  his  latest  book. 

"  Thanks,  my  son.  It  is  always  a  pleasure  to  ex- 
amine thy  manuscripts." 

The  monks  gathered  around  the  Abbot  to  look  at 
the  new  volume.  "  It  is  strange,"  said  one  of  them, 
named  Father  Melchior.  "  How  canst  thou  make  so 
many  books?  Thou  must  have  a  great  company  of 
scribes." 

Another  was  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  book. 
"  It  is  not  quite  like  the  work  of  our  hands,"  said  he. 

"  It  is  certain  that  none  of  us  can  compete  with  thy 
speed  in  writing,"  went  on  Father  Melchior.  "  Every 
few  weeks  thou  dost  bring  in  twelve  or  more  books, 
written  in  half  the  time  it  takes  our  quickest  scribe  to 
make  a  single  copy." 

"Moreover,"  said  another,  "the  letters  are  all  so 
exact  and  regular.  Thou  hast  brought  two  copies,  and 
one  has  just  as  many  letters  and  words  on  a  page  as 
the  other,  and  all  the  letters  are  exactly  alike." 

The   Abbot   had   been   studying  the  book  closely. 


24  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Now  he  asked  the  monks  to  withdraw.  When  Guten- 
berg and  he  were  alone,  he  said,  "Are  these  books 
really  made  with  a  copyist's  pen  ?  "  He  cast  a  search- 
ing glance  at  the  lapidary. 

Gutenberg,  much  embarrassed,  had  no  answer  for 
him. 

"  It  is  as  I  guessed,"  said  the  Abbot.  "  They  are 
made  from  blocks,  like  the  St.  Christopher." 

The  Abbot  smiled  at  the  look  of  dismay  on  Guten- 
berg's face.  "  Have  no  fear,"  he  added.  "  It  may  be 
that  I  can  supply  thee  with  better  work  for  thy  skill. 
We  need  more  copies  of  the  '  Biblia  Pauperum  '  for  our 
use  here,  and  I  have  no  doubt  thou  couldst  greatly 
improve  on  the  best  we  have." 

"  I  should  like  to  do  it,"  said  Gutenberg,  "  if  there 
were  not  too  much  expense." 

"The  priests  will  need  many  copies,"  the  Abbot  as- 
sured him.  "  And  thou  shalt  be  well  paid  for  them." 

So  the  young  printer  agreed  to  undertake  this  new 
commission.  It  meant  much  to  him  to  have  secured 
the  patronage  of  the  Abbot,  for  this  would  set  a  seal 
upon  the  excellence  of  his  work,  and  bring  him  to  the 
notice  of  the  wealthy  and  cultivated  people  of  the  day. 

Gutenberg  took  the  Abbot's  copy  of  the  "  Biblia " 
home,  and  he  and  the  apprentices  started  work  upon 
the  wooden  blocks.  There  were  many  cuts  in  the  book 
which  had  to  be  copied,  and  so  they  engaged  two 
wood  engravers  who  lived  in  Strasburg  to  help  them. 
Even  so,  it  took  them  months  to  finish  the  book.  But 
when  it  was  printed  and  bound,  and  a  copy  shown  to 
the  Abbot,  he  was  delighted  with  it  "  Thou  hast  done 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     25 

nobly,  my  son,"  said  he,  "  and  thy  labors  will  serve  the 
interests  of  our  Mother  Church.  Thou  shalt  be  well 
paid." 

Gutenberg  returned  home  with  the  money,  and 
showed  it  delightedly  to  his  wife.  "  I  knew  thou 
wouldst  triumph,"  said  she.  "  Only  to  think  of  a  real 
'  Biblia  Pauperum '  made  by  my  John  Gutenberg.  We 
shall  see  wonderful  days  ! " 

Now  fortune  grew  more  favorable.  The  "  Biblia " 
sold  better  than  the  other  books  had  done,  and 
they  next  printed  the  Canticles,  or  Solomon's  Song. 
This  was  impressed,  as  the  others  had  been,  on  only 
one  side  of  the  page,  and  from  engraved  wooden 
blocks.  Then  Gutenberg  thought  he  would  like  to 
print  the  entire  Bible.  Anna  favored  this,  and  he 
started  to  figure  out  how  long  the  work  would  take. 

"  There  are  seven  hundred  pages  in  the  Bible,"  said 
he.  "I  cannot  engrave  more  than  two  pages  a  month 
working  steadily,  and  at  such  a  rate  it  would  take  me 
fully  three  hundred  and  fifty  months,  or  nearly  thirty 
years,  to  make  blocks  enough  to  print  the  Holy  Book." 

"  Why,  thou  wouldst  be  an  old  man  before  it  was 
done  ! "  cried  his  wife  in  dismay. 

"  Yes,  and  more  than  that,  this  process  of  engraving 
is  dimming  to  the  eyes.  I  should  be  blind  before  my 
work  was  half  done." 

"  But  couldst  thou  not  divide  the  work  with  the 
others  ?  " 

"  Yes,  if  only  I  could  persuade  them  to  attempt  so 
big  a  work.  They  want  to  try  smaller  books,  for  they 
say  my  new  process  is  hardly  better  for  making  a  large 


26  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

book  than  the  old  method  of  copying.  It  may  be  that 
I  can  get  them  to  print  the  Gospels  gradually,  one  book 
at  a  time." 

Though  the  workmen  were  now  growing  more 
weary  and  disheartened  with  each  new  volume  they  un- 
dertook, Gutenberg  would  not  give  up.  He  persuaded 
them  to  start  cutting  the  blocks  for  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Matthew.  But  as  he  worked  with  his  knives  the  ap- 
prentices grumbled  about  him.  At  last  he  had  the  first 
block  nearly  done.  Then  his  hand  slipped,  the  tool 
twisted,  and  the  block  was  split  across. 

The  other  men  looked  aghast.  So  much  work  had 
gone  for  nothing. 

Gutenberg  sat  studying  the  broken  block  of  wood. 
As  he  studied  it  a  new  idea  came  to  him.  Picking  up 
his  knife  he  split  the  wood,  making  separate  pieces  of 
every  letter  carved  on  it.  Then  he  stared  at  the  pile  of 
little  pieces  that  lay  before  him  like  a  bundle  of  splin- 
ters. He  realized  that  he  was  now  on  the  trail  of  a 
greater  discovery  than  any  he  had  yet  made,  for  these 
separate  letters  could  be  used  over  and  over  again,  not 
only  in  printing  one  book  but  in  printing  hundreds. 

Taking  a  fresh  block  he  split  it  into  little  strips,  and 
cutting  these  down  to  the  right  size,  he  carved  a  letter 
on  the  end  of  each  strip.  This  was  more  difficult  than 
cutting  on  the  solid  block,  and  he  spoiled  many  strips 
of  wood  before  he  got  a  letter  that  satisfied  him.  But 
finally  he  had  made  one,  and  then  another,  and  another, 
until  he  had  all  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  He  was 
careful  to  cut  the  sticks  of  the  proper  width,  so  that  the 
letters  would  not  be  too  far  apart  when  they  should  be 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     27 

used  for  printing.  When  they  were  done  he  showed 
them  to  the  others  and  called  them  stucke,  or  type. 
They  soon  saw  what  a  great  step  forward  he  had 
made. 

The  first  words  he  printed  with  type  were  Bonus 
homo,  "a  good  man."  He  took  the  letters  that  spelled 
the  first  word,  and  putting  them  in  their  proper  order 
tied  them  together  with  a  string.  He  only  had  one 
letter  o,  so  he  had  to  stop  and  cut  two  more.  Then  he 
made  a  supply  of  each  letter  of  the  alphabet,  and  put 
type  of  each  letter  separately  in  little  boxes,  to  keep 
them  from  getting  mixed.  So  he  made  the  first  font  of 
movable  type  known  to  history. 

As  he  experimented  with  these  first  type  he  made 
another  improvement.  He  found  it  was  hard  to  keep 
the  letters  tight  together,  so  that  he  could  ink  them  and 
print  from  them.  He  cut  little  notches  in  the  edges  of 
the  different  type,  and  by  fastening  his  linen  thread 
about  the  notches  in  the  outside  letters  of  each  word  he 
found  that  he  could  hold  a  word  as  tightly  together  as 
if  all  the  letters  in  it  were  cut  on  a  single  block. 

The  cutting  of  the  type  and  the  studying  out  of 
new  and  better  ways  of  holding  them  together  took  a 
great  deal  of  time,  and  meanwhile  the  sales  of  gems 
and  mirrors  had  fallen  off.  The  apprentices  had  not 
the  master's  skill  in  holding  the  letters  together,  and 
they  grew  discouraged  as  time  after  time  the  type 
would  separate  as  they  were  ready  to  print  from  it. 
They  wanted  to  go  back  to  the  blocks,  but  Gutenberg 
insisted  that  his  new  way  was  the  better.  At  last  he 
hit  upon  another  idea.  He  would  make  a  press  which 


28  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

would  hold  the  type  together  better  than  a  linen  thread 
or  a  knot  of  wire. 

After  many  patient  experiments  he  finished  a  small 
model  of  a  press  which  seemed  to  him  to  combine  all 
the  qualifications  needed  for  his  work.  He  took  this 
to  a  skilful  turner  in  wood  and  metal,  who  examined 
it  carefully.  "  This  is  only  a  simple  wine-press  I  am  to 
make,  Master  John,"  said  he. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Gutenberg,  "  it  is  in  effect  a  wine- 
press, but  it  shall  shortly  spout  forth  floods  of  the  most 
abundant  and  marvelous  liquor  that  has  ever  flowed  to 
quench  the  thirst  of  man." 

The  mechanic,  paying  no  heed  to  Gutenberg's  ex- 
citement, made  the  press  for  him  according  to  the 
model.  It  was  set  up  in  the  printing-rooms  of  Dritzhn's 
dwelling,  and  the  firm  went  on  with  their  work  of  cut- 
ting movable  type.  But  the  sale  of  books  was  small, 
and  for  two  years  more  the  apprentices  grumbled,  and 
protested  that  they  should  have  stuck  to  the  lapidary's 
art. 

New  troubles  soon  arose.  It  was  found  that  the  ink 
softened  the  type  and  spoiled  the  form  of  the  letters. 
"  We  must  make  more  fresh  type,"  said  Gutenberg, 
"  until  we  can  find  a  way  to  harden  the  wood."  Then 
a  bill  was  sent  in  of  one  hundred  florins  for  press-work. 
The  partners  were  angry,  and  said  they  saw  no  real 
advantage  in  the  press.  "  But  without  the  frame  and 
press  all  our  labor  of  making  stucke  will  prove  useless," 
answered  the  inventor.  "  We  must  either  give  up  the 
art,  and  disband,  or  make  the  necessary  improvements 
as  they  are  called  for." 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     29 

Gutenberg  was  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  his  partner 
Dritzhn.  Two  years  of  small  success  and  great  doubt 
had  told  upon  the  latter,  and  so  one  day  when  Father 
Melchior  of  the  Cathedral  told  him  he  noticed  that  he 
was  worried,  Dritzhn  confessed  to  him  the  secret  of  the 
printing  shop.  "  I  have  put  money  into  the  business," 
said  he,  "  and  if  I  leave  now  I  fear  I  shall  lose  it  all." 

"  Leave  it  by  all  means,"  advised  the  Father,  "  for 
be  sure  that  no  good  will  come  of  these  strange  arts." 

But  when  he  went  back  to  the  shop  Dritzhn  dis- 
covered the  others  setting  type  for  a  new  work,  a 
dictionary,  that  was  called  a  "  Catholicon."  They 
were  all  enthusiastic  about  this,  believing  it  would  have 
a  readier  sale  than  their  other  works,  and  so  he  de- 
cided to  stay  with  them  a  little  longer,  in  spite  of  the 
Father's  advice. 

Just  as  the  dictionary  was  ready  to  be  issued,  in  the 
autumn  of  1439,  an  event  occurred  which  threw  the 
firm  into  confusion.  Dritzhn  died  suddenly,  and  his 
two  brothers  demanded  that  Gutenberg  should  let 
them  take  his  place  in  the  firm.  He  read  over  the 
contract  which  they  had  all  signed,  and  then  told  them 
that  they  could  riot  be  admitted  as  partners,  but  should 
be  paid  the  fifteen  florins  which  the  books  showed 
were  due  to  Dritzhn' s  heirs.  They  rejected  this  with 
scorn,  and  at  once  started  a  lawsuit  against  Gutenberg 
and  his  partners. 

There  were  no  such  protections  for  inventions  as 
patents  then ;  rumor  soon  spread  abroad  the  news  that 
Gutenberg  had  discovered  a  new  art  that  would  prove 
a  gold-mine,  and  the  poor  inventor  saw  that  the  law- 


30  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

suit  would  probably  end  in  his  ruin.  The  printing- 
press  had  stood  in  Dritzhn's  house,  and  before  Guten- 
berg could  prevent  it  the  two  brothers  had  stolen  parts 
of  it.  Then  he  had  what  was  left  of  it  carried  to  his 
own  house ;  but  even  here  spies  swarmed  to  try  to 
learn  something  of  his  secret.  Finally  he  realized  that 
his  invention  was  not  safe  even  there,  and  decided 
that  every  vestige  of  his  work  must  be  destroyed. 
"Take  the  stucke  from  the  forms,"  said  he  to  his  friends, 
"  and  break  them  up  in  my  sight,  that  none  of  them  may 
remain  perfect." 

"  What,  all  our  labor  for  the  last  three  years  !  "  cried 
Hielman. 

"  Never  mind,"  answered  Gutenberg.  "  Break  them 
up,  or  some  one  will  steal  our  art,  and  we  shall  be 
ruined." 

So,  taking  hammers  and  mallets,  they  broke  the 
precious  forms  of  type  into  thousands  of  fragments. 

The  lawsuit  dragged  along,  and  finally  ended  in 
Gutenberg's  favor.  The  firm  was  ordered  to  pay 
Dritzhn's  brothers  the  fifteen  florins,  and  nothing  more. 
But  the  type  were  destroyed,  and  the  partners  were 
afraid  to  make  new  ones,  lest  the  suspicious  public 
should  spy  upon  them  and  learn  their  secret.  When 
the  term  of  the  contract  between  the  partners  came  to 
an  end  it  was  not  renewed.  Each  of  the  firm  went  his 
own  way,  and  John  Gutenberg  opened  his  lapidary's 
shop  again  and  tried  to  build  up  the  trade  he  had  lost. 

His  wife  was  still  Gutenberg's  chief  encouragement. 
She  was  certain  that  some  day  he  would  win  success, 
and  often  in  the  evening  she  would  urge  him  not  to 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     31 

despair  of  his  invention,  but  to  wait  till  the  time  should 
be  ripe  for  him  to  go  on  with  it  again.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  give  it  up.  Before 
long  he  was  cutting  stucke  again  in  his  spare  hours, 
and  then  trying  his  hand  at  printing  single  pages. 

He  felt  however  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  him 
to  resume  his  presswork  in  Strasburg.  There  was 
too  much  prejudice  against  his  invention  there.  So 
he  decided  to  go  back  to  his  home  town  of  Mainz, 
where  many  of  his  family  were  living.  Anna  agreed 
with  this  decision,  and  so  they  closed  their  shop,  sold 
their  goods,  and  journeyed  to  his  brother's  home. 
There  one  day  his  brother  introduced  him  to  a  rich 
goldsmith  named  Faust,  and  this  man  said  he  under- 
stood that  Gutenberg  had  invented  a  new  way  of  mak- 
ing books.  John  admitted  this,  and  told  him  some  de- 
tails of  his  process. 

The  goldsmith  was  most  enthusiastic,  and  suggested 
that  he  might  be  able  to  help  the  inventor  with  money. 
Gutenberg  said  he  should  need  two  or  three  thousand 
florins.  "  I  will  give  it  to  thee,"  answered  Faust,  "  if 
thou  canst  convince  me  that  it  will  pay  better  than 
goldsmithing." 

Then  the  printer  confided  all  his  secrets  to  Faust, 
and  the  latter  considered  them  with  great  care.  At 
last  he  was  satisfied,  and  told  Gutenberg  that  he  would 
enter  into  partnership  with  him.  "  But  where  shall  we 
start  the  work  ?  "  he  added.  "  Secrecy  is  absolutely 
necessary.  We  must  live  in  the  house  in  which  we 
work." 

"  I  had   thought  of  the  Zum  Jungen,"  answered  Gu- 


32  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

tenberg,  naming  an  old  house  that  overlooked  the 
Rhine. 

"  The  very  place,"  agreed  Faust.  "  It  is  almost  a 
palace  in  size,  and  will  give  us  ample  room  ;  it  is  in 
the  city,  and  yet  oufof  its  bustle.  It  is  vacant  now,  and 
I  will  rent  it  at  once.  When  canst  thou  move  there  ?  " 

"  At  once,"  said  Gutenberg,  more  pleased  than  he 
dared  show. 

So  the  printer  and  his  good  wife  moved  to  the  Zum 
Jungen,  which  was  more  like  a  castle  than  a  tradesman's 
dwelling-house.  Its  windows  looked  over  the  broad, 
beautiful  river  to  the  wooded  shores  beyond.  Faust 
advanced  Gutenberg  the  sum  of  2,020  florins,  taking  a 
mortgage  on  his  printing  materials  as  security.  Then 
Faust  moved  his  family  and  servants  to  the  old  house, 
and  the  firm  started  work.  Hanau,  the  valet  of  Gu- 
tenberg's father,  and  a  young  scholar  named  Martin 
Duttlinger,  joined  them  at  the  outset. 

Two  well-lighted  rooms  on  the  second  floor,  so  placed 
as  to  be  inaccessible  to  visitors,  were  chosen  for  the 
workshops.  Here  the  four  worked  from  early  morning 
until  nearly  midnight,  cutting  out  new  sets  of  type  and 
preparing  them  for  the  presswork.  They  began  by 
printing  a  new  manual  of  grammar,  an  "  Absies,"  or 
alphabetical  table,  and  the  "  Doctrinale."  All  three  of 
these  it  was  thought  would  be  of  use  to  all  who  could 
read. 

Soon  Faust  discovered  the  same  defect  in  the  type 
that  the  workmen  at  Strasburg  had  discovered.  The 
wooden  letters  would  soften  when  used,  and  soon  lose 
their  shape.  He  spoke  to  Gutenberg  about  it,  and  the 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     33 

latter  studied  the  problem.  At  length  an  idea  occurred 
to  him.  He  opened  a  drawer  and  took  out  a  bit  of 
metal.  He  cut  a  letter  on  the  end  of  it.  "  There  is  the 
answer,"  said  he.  "  We  will  make  our  type  of  lead. 
We  can  cut  it,  and  ink  cannot  soften  it  as  it  does 
wood." 

Faust  was  very  much  pleased.  Now  that  he  un- 
derstood Gutenberg's  invention  he  realized  how  great 
a  thing  it  was  destined  to  become,  and  was  anxious  to 
help  its  progress  in  every  way  he  could.  One  day 
Gutenberg  told  him  that  they  needed  a  good  man  to  cut 
the  designs  for  the  engravings.  "  Dost  thou  know  of 
one?"  asked  Faust.  "Of  only  one,"  was  the  answer. 
"  He  is  Peter  Schoeffer,  a  youth  who  helped  me  before. 
He  is  now  a  teacher  of  penmanship  in  Paris." 

"  We  must  send  for  him,"  said  Faust. 

So  Gutenberg  sent  for  Schoeffer,  and  the  printing 
staff  was  increased  to  five. 

Schceffer  had  considerable  reputation  as  a  scholar, 
and  soon  after  he  had  joined  them  Gutenberg  asked 
him  what  he  thought  was  the  most  important  book  in 
the  world.  Schoeffer  replied  that  he  was  not  suffi- 
ciently learned  to  answer  the  question. 

"  But  to  the  best  of  thy  knowledge,"  persisted  Gu- 
tenberg. 

"  I  remember  that  when  I  was  in  the  Cathedral 
school,"  said  Schoeffer,  "  Father  Melchior  showed  us 
the  Gothic  Gospels,  or  Silver  Book,  and  said  that  more 
art  and  expense  had  been  spent  on  the  Bible  than  on 
any  other  book  he  knew.  I  believe  therefore  that  it  is 
the  most  useful  and  important  book  in  the  world." 


34  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

"  So  I  believe,"  agreed  Gutenberg,  "  and  I  intend  to 
print  it  in  the  best  style  possible  to  my  art." 

"  But  what  a  tremendous  undertaking,  to  print  the 
whole  Bible  !  "  exclaimed  Schceffer. 

"  Yes,  a  stupendous  work,"  Gutenberg  agreed. 
"  And  so  I  want  to  start  upon  it  at  once." 

Schoeffer  was  amazed  when  Gutenberg  showed  him 
the  new  press  he  had  built  at  the  Zum  Jungen.  He 
watched  the  master  dab  the  type  with  ink,  slide  them 
under  the  platen,  and  having  pressed  it  down,  take  out 
the  printed  page. 

"  It  is  wonderful !  "  said  he.  "  How  many  impres- 
sions canst  thou  take  from  the  press  in  a  day  ?  " 

"  About  three  hundred,  working  steadily." 

"  Then  books  will  indeed  multiply  !  What  would  the 
plodding  copyists  say  to  this  !  " 

When  they  began  printing  with  the  lead  type  they 
soon  found  that  the  metal  was  too  soft.  The  nicest 
skill  had  to  be  used  in  turning  the  screw  of  the  press, 
and  only  Gutenberg  seemed  able  to  succeed  with  it. 
Schceffer  suggested  that  they  should  try  iron. 

"  We  have,"  said  Gutenberg,  "  but  it  pierced  the 
paper  so  that  it  could  not  be  used." 

Schoeffer  was  used  to  experimenting  in  metals,  and 
the  next  day  he  brought  to  the  workroom  an  alloy 
which  he  thought  might  serve.  It  was  a  mixture  of 
regulus  of  antimony  and  lead.  They  tried  it,  and  found 
it  was  precisely  the  right  substance  for  their  use.  Gu- 
tenberg and  Faust  were  both  delighted,  and  very  soon 
afterward  made  Peter  Schceffer  a  partner  in  the  firm. 

They  now  started  on  the  great  work  of  printing  the 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     35 

Bible.  Duttlinger  was  commissioned  to  buy  a  Bible  to 
serve  for  his  own  use.  This  was  brought  in  secret  to 
the  workrooms,  and  the  partners  inspected  it  carefully. 
They  realized  what  a  huge  undertaking  it  would  be  to 
print  such  a  long  book,  but  nevertheless  they  set  out  to 
do  it.  Each  man  was  allotted  his  share  in  the  labor, 
and  the  work  began. 

The  press  Gutenberg  was  using  was  a  very  simple 
affair.  Two  upright  posts  were  fastened  together  by 
crosspieces  at  top  and  bottom.  In  this  frame  a  big 
iron  screw  was  worked  by  means  of  a  handle.  A  board 
was  fastened  beneath  the  screw,  and  the  type,  when 
inked  and  set  in  a  wooden  frame,  were  placed  on  this 
board.  The  printing  paper  was  laid  over  the  type,  and 
the  screw  forced  the  platen,  which  was  the  board  fixed  to 
it,  down  upon  the  paper.  Then  the  screw  was  raised 
by  the  handle,  the  platen  was  lifted  with  it,  and  the 
printed  paper  was  ready  to  be  taken  out.  The  screw 
was  worked  up  and  down  in  a  box,  called  a  hose,  and 
the  board  on  which  the  type  were  set  for  the  printing 
was  actually  a  sort  of  sliding  table.  The  frame  or 
chase  of  type  was  fixed  on  this  table,  and  when  inked 
and  with  the  paper  laid  in  place,  was  slid  under  the 
platen,  which  was  a  smooth  planed  board.  The  screw 
was  turned  down,  the  platen  was  pressed  against  the 
sheet  of  paper,  and  the  printing  was  done. 

Each  of  the  workers  at  the  Zum  Jungen  suggested 
valuable  changes  and  additions.  Schoeffer  proved 
wonderfully  adept  at  cutting  type,  and  later  at  illumi- 
nating the  initial  letters  that  were  needed.  The  copies 
we  have  of  the  books  published  by  this  first  Mainz  press 


36  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

bear  striking  witness  to  the  rare  skill  and  taste  Peter 
Schceffer  showed  in  designing  and  coloring  the  large 
capital  letters  that  were  considered  essential  at  that 
day. 

The  firm  had  by  now  prepared  several  hundred 
pounds'  weight  of  metal  type  for  the  Bible,  had  dis- 
covered that  a  mixture  of  linseed  oil  and  lampblack 
made  the  best  ink,  and  had  invented  ink-dabbers  made 
of  skin  stuffed  with  wool.  Then  it  occurred  to  Schoeffer 
that  there  must  be  some  easier  way  of  making  type 
than  by  cutting  it  out  by  hand.  After  some  study  he 
found  it,  and  the  firm  began  taking  casts  of  type  in 
plaster  moulds.  But  the  success  of  this  method  seemed 
very  doubtful  at  first,  for  it  was  hard  to  get  a  good  im- 
pression of  such  small  things  as  type  in  the  soft  plaster. 
Again  Schceffer  showed  his  skill.  He  planned  the  cut- 
ting of  punches  which  would  stamp  the  outline  of  the 
type  upon  the  matrix.  He  cut  matrices  for  the  whole 
alphabet,  and  then  showed  the  letters  cast  from  them  to 
Gutenberg  and  Faust. 

"  Are  these  letters  cast  in  moulds  ?  "  exclaimed  the 
astonished  Faust. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Schceffer. 

"This  is  the  greatest  of  all  thy  inventions  then," 
said  Faust.  "  Thou  art  beyond  all  question  a  great 
genius  ! " 

With  type  cast  in  this  new  way  the  firm  printed  the 
first  page  of  their  Bible  in  the  spring  of  1450.  The 
press  worked  to  perfection,  and  when  they  removed 
the  vellum  sheet  the  printed  letters  were  clear,  beauti- 
fully formed,  and  ranged  in  perfect  lines.  So  began  the 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     37 

printing  of  what  was  to  become  famous  as  the  Mazarine 
Bible.  But  it  was  not  until  five  years  later,  in  1455, 
that  the  book  was  finished. 

The  Bible  was  printed,  but  its  cost  had  been  great, 
and  the  returns  from  its  sale  were  small.  Faust  was 
dissatisfied  with  Gutenberg,  and  took  occasion  to  tell 
Schoeffer  one  evening  that  he  believed  the  firm  would 
do  better  without  the  master.  "  Thou  hast  devised  the 
ink,  the  forms  for  casting  type,  and  the  mixture  of 
metals,"  he  said.  "  These  are  almost  all  that  has  been 
invented.  Gutenberg  spent  4,000  florins  before  the 
Bible  was  half  done,  and  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  ever 
repay  me  the  sums  I  have  advanced." 

Faust  played  upon  young  Schoeffer's  vanity,  he 
praised  him  continually  and  disparaged  Gutenberg, 
and  finally  persuaded  him  they  would  be  better  off 
without  the  latter.  Peter  Schoeffer  was,  moreover,  in 
love  with  Faust's  daughter  Christiane,  and  wished  to 
marry  her.  This  was  another  inducement  for  him  to 
side  with  the  rich  goldsmith. 

Then  one  day  Faust  asked  Gutenberg  blankly  when 
he  intended  to  repay  him  the  money  he  had  advanced. 
Gutenberg  was  surprised,  and  told  him  he  had  nothing 
but  the  small  profits  the  firm  was  making. 

"  I  will  give  thee  thirty  days  to  pay  the  debt,"  said 
Faust,  "  and  if  thou  dost  fail  to  pay  within  that  time  I 
shall  take  steps  to  collect  it." 

"  But  how  am  I  to  procure  it  ?  Wouldst  thou  ruin 
me  ?  "  cried  Gutenberg. 

"  The  money  I  must  have,  and  if  thou  art  honest 
thou  wilt  pay  me,"  came  the  hard  answer. 


38  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  month  ended,  and  Gutenberg  had  not  found  the 
money.  He  protested  and  pleaded  with  Faust,  but  the 
latter  was  obdurate.  He  started  a  lawsuit  at  once  to 
recover  the  sums  he  had  expended,  and  judgment  was 
given  against  Gutenberg,  commanding  that  he  should 
pay  what  he  had  borrowed,  together  with  interest. 
Gutenberg  could  not  do  this,  and  so  Faust  took  posses- 
sion of  all  the  presses,  the  type,  and  the  copies  of  the 
Bible  that  were  already  printed. 

Gutenberg  knew  that  he  was  ruined.  His  wife  tried 
to  console  him.  "  I  am  worse  than  penniless,"  said  he. 
"  My  noble  art  is  at  an  end.  What  I  most  feared  has 
happened.  They  have  stolen  my  invention,  and  I  have 
nothing  left" 

Meantime  Schceffer  had  married  Faust's  daughter, 
and  the  two  men  took  up  the  printing  business  for 
themselves.  Faust  showed  the  Bibles  to  friends,  and 
was  advised  to  carry  a  supply  of  them  to  Paris.  He 
went  to  that  city,  and  at  first  met  with  great  success. 
He  sold  the  King  a  copy  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
crowns,  and  private  citizens  copies  at  smaller  prices. 
But  soon  word  spread  abroad  that  this  stranger's  stock 
was  inexhaustible.  "  The  more  he  sells  the  more  he 
has  for  sale,"  said  one  priest.  Then  some  one  started 
the  report  that  the  stranger  was  in  league  with  the 
devil,  and  soon  a  mob  had  broken  into  his  lodgings 
and  found  his  stock  of  Bibles.  Faust  was  arrested  on 
the  charge  of  dealing  in  the  black  art,  and  was  brought 
before  the  court.  He  now  decided  that  he  would  have 
to  tell  of  the  printing  press  if  he  were  to  escape,  and 
so  he  made  a  full  confession.  So  great  was  the  wonder 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS     39 

and  admiration  at  the  announcement  of  this  new  inven- 
tion that  he  was  at  once  released,  loaded  with  honors, 
and  soon  after  returned  to  Mainz  with  large  profits 
from  his  trip. 

But  Gutenberg  was  hot  entirely  left  to  despair.  His 
brother  Friele,  who  was  well-to-do,  came  to  his  aid,  and 
interested  friends  in  starting  John  at  work  on  his 
presses  again.  He  missed  Schceffer's  discoveries  as  to 
ink  and  the  casts  for  type,  but  although  he  had  not  the 
means  to  print  another  copy  of  the  Bible,  he  contrived 
to  print  various  other  books  which  were  bought  by  the 
clerical  schools  and  the  monasteries.  After  a  time 
Faust,  realizing  perhaps  that  Gutenberg  was  in  reality 
the  inventor  of  the  art  which  he  was  beginning  to  find  so 
lucrative,  came  to  him,  and  asked  his  forgiveness.  He 
admitted  that  he  had  been  unfair  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  lawsuit,  and  urged  Gutenberg  to  take  his  old  place 
in  their  firm.  But  Gutenberg  could  not  be  persuaded, 
he  preferred  to  work  after  his  own  fashion,  and  to  be 
responsible  only  to  himself. 

For  eight  years  he  carried  on  the  business  of  his  new 
printing  shop  in  the  Zum  Jungen,  with  his  brother  and 
Conrad  Humery,  Syndic  of  Mainz,  to  share  the  expenses 
and  profits.  Then  his  wife,  Anna,  died,  and  he  could 
not  keep  on  with  the  work.  His  brother  advised  him 
to  leave  Mainz  for  a  time  and  travel.  So  he  sold  his 
presses  and  type  to  the  Syndic,  and  left  Mainz.  Wher- 
ever he  journeyed  he  was  received  with  honor,  for  it 
was  now  widely  known  that  he  had  invented  the  new  art 
of  printing.  The  Elector  Adolphus  of  Nassau  invited 
him  to  enter  his  service  as  one  of  his  gentlemen  pension- 


40  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

ers,  and  paid  him  a  generous  salary.  Thus  he  was  able 
to  live  in  peace  and  comfort  until  his  death  in  1468. 

Meanwhile  Faust  and  Schceffer  had  continued  to 
print  the  Bible  and  other  works,  and  had  found  a  pros- 
perous market  in  France  and  the  German  cities, 
Schceffer  cast  a  font  of  Greek  type,  and  used  this  in 
printing  a  copy  of  Cicero's  "  De  Officiis,"  which  was 
eagerly  bought  by  the  professors  and  students  of  the 
great  University  of  Paris.  But  as  Faust  was  disposing 
of  the  last  copies  of  this  book  in  the  French  capital  he 
was  seized  with  the  plague,  and  died  almost  immedi- 
ately. For  thirty-six  years  Peter  Schceffer  continued 
printing  books,  making  many  improvements,  and 
bringing  out  better  and  better  editions  of  the  Bible. 

The  capture  of  Mainz  in  1462  by  the  Elector  Adol- 
phus  of  Nassau  gave  the  secrets  of  the  printing  press 
to  the  civilized  world.  Presses  were  set  up  in  Ham- 
burg, Cologne,  Strasburg,  and  Augsburg,  two  of 
Faust's  former  workmen  began  printing  in  Paris,  and 
the  Italian  cities  of  Florence  and  Venice  eagerly  took 
up  the  new  work.  Between  1470  and  1480  twelve  hun- 
dred and  ninety-seven  books  were  printed  in  Italy  alone, 
an  indication  of  what  men  thought  of  the  value  of 
Gutenberg's  invention. 

William  Caxton,  an  English  merchant,  learned  the 
new  art  while  he  was  traveling  in  Germany,  and  when 
he  returned  home  started  a  press  at  Westminster  with 
a  partner  named  Wynken  de  Worde.  This  was  the 
first  English  press,  but  others  were  quickly  set  up  at 
Oxford  and  York,  Canterbury,  Worcester,  and  Nor- 
wich, and  books  began  to  appear  in  a  steady  stream. 


GUTENBERG  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS    41 

The  art  of  printing  has  seen  great  changes  since  Gu- 
tenberg's day.  The  type  is  now  made  by  machinery, 
inked  by  machinery,  set  and  distributed  again  by  ma- 
chinery. The  letters,  when  once  set  up,  are  cast  in 
plates  of  entire  pages,  so  that  they  can  be  kept  for  use 
whenever  they  are  wanted.  Stereotyping  and  electro- 
typing  have  made  this  possible.  The  Mergenthaler 
Linotype  machine  sets  and  casts  type  in  the  form  of 
solid  lines.  The  great  presses  of  to-day  can  accom- 
plish more  in  twelve  hours  than  the  presses  of  1480  in 
as  many  months. 

But  the  great  press  we  have  is  the  direct  descendant 
of  the  little  one  that  John  Gutenberg  built  in  the  Zum 
Jungen  at  Mainz,  and  the  letters  we  read  on  the  printed 
page  are  after  all  only  another  form  of  those  he  cut  out 
with  so  much  patient  labor  on  his  wooden  blocks  in 
Strasburg.  Printing  is  one  of  the  greatest  inventions 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  but  it  had  its  beginning  in  the 
simple  fact  that  a  young  German  polisher  of  gems  fell 
to  wondering  how  a  rude  playing-card  had  been  made. 


II 

PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL 

About  1510-1589 

THE  discovery  of  a  long-sought  enamel  and  the  suc- 
cessful manufacture  of  a  new  and  beautiful  type  of  pot- 
tery can  scarcely  be  ranked  among  the  great  inventions 
of  history,  but  the  story  of  Bernard  Palissy  is  far  too  in- 
teresting to  need  any  such  excuse.  He  was  a  worker 
in  the  fine  arts,  in  a  day  when  objects  of  beauty  were 
considered  of  the  first  importance,  and  his  success  was 
then  regarded  as  almost  as  great  a  thing  as  the  build- 
ing of  the  first  McCormick  reaper  in  another  age. 

This  maker  of  a  new  and  beautiful  porcelain  was  a 
Frenchman,  born  about  1510  at  the  little  village  of  La 
Chapelle  Biron,  which  lies  between  the  Lot  and  Dor- 
dogne,  in  Perigord.  His  parents  were  poor  peasants, 
without  the  means  or  the  opportunity  to  give  Bernard 
much  of  a  schooling,  but  he  picked  up  a  very  fair 
knowledge  of  reading  and  writing,  and  kept  his  eyes 
so  wide  open  that  he  learned  much  more  than  the  aver- 
age country  boy.  It  was  the  age  when  the  churches  of 
France  were  being  made  glorious  with  windows  of 
many-colored  glass,  and  Bernard,  watching  the  glass- 
workers,  dared  to  ask  if  they  would  take  him  as  ap- 
prentice. One  of  them  would,  and  so  the  boy  of  Peri- 
gord began  his  career  of  artist,  his  field  covering  not 
only  the  manufacture  of  glass,  but  its  cutting,  arrang- 


PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL  43 

ing,  and  sometimes  its  painting  for  the  rose- windows  of 
the  Gothic  churches.  And  so  skilled  were  those  glass- 
workers  and  so  deeply  in  love  with  their  art  that  their 
glass  has  been  the  despair  of  the  later  centuries  that 
have  tried  to  copy  them. 

Like  a  true  artist  he  was  very  much  in  earnest. 
With  his  spare  time  and  such  money  as  he  could  save 
he  studied  all  subjects  that  seemed  apt  to  be  of  help 
to  him.  He  learned  geometry,  and  drawing,  painting, 
and  modeling.  In  his  desire  for  the  greatest  subjects 
for  his  windows  and  the  finest  treatment  of  them, 
Bernard  turned  to  Italy,  the  home  of  the  great  paint- 
ers, and  copied  their  works.  This  led  his  eager  mind 
to  delve  into  Italian  literature,  and  shortly  the  young 
workman  was  not  only  draughtsman  and  artist,  but 
something  of  a  man  of  letters  as  well.  The  little  vil- 
lage of  La  Chapelle  Biron  found  that  the  peasant's 
son,  without  any  education  in  the  church  schools,  was 
already  a  man  of  many  talents  and  quite  remarkable 
learning. 

He  had  mastered  his  profession,  and  the  town  in 
Perigord  was  somewhat  too  small  for  him.  He  must 
see  something  of  that  outer  world  where  many  others 
were  making  works  of  art.  His  skill  as  a  painter  of 
glass,  as  a  draughtsman,  and  land-measurer,  would 
earn  him  a  living  wherever  he  might  go.  So  he  set 
forth  on  his  travels,  as  many  young  scholars  and  arti- 
sans were  used  to  do  in  those  days,  working  here  and 
there,  collecting  new  ideas,  talking  with  many  men  of 
different  minds,  and  gaining  a  first-hand  knowledge  of 
the  world  that  lay  about  him.  He  visited  the  chief 


44  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

provinces  of  France,  saw  something  of  Burgundy  and 
Flanders,  and  stayed  for  a  time  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine.  His  love  of  acquiring  knowledge  grew  as  he 
traveled,  and  he  studied  natural  history,  geology  and 
chemistry.  Where  churches  were  being  built  he  painted 
glass,  where  towns  or  nobles  needed  measurers  or  sur- 
veyors of  their,  lands  he  worked  for  them.  When  he 
had  seen  as  much  of  the  world  as  he  wished,  he  went 
to  the  town  of  Saintes,  married,  and  settled  there  as 
a  man  of  several  trades. 

It  was  in  1539  that  Palissy  became  a  citizen  of 
Saintes,  and  several  years  later  that  chance  sent  his 
way  a  beautiful  cup  of  enameled  pottery.  Some  have 
said  that  the  cup  came  from  Italy,  and  some  from  Nu- 
remberg, but  it  was  of  a  new  pattern  to  Palissy,  and 
the  more  he  looked  at  it  and  handled  it  the  more  he 
wanted  to  learn  the  secret  of  its  making,  and  duplicate 
it  or  improve  on  it.  He  had  the  artist's  wish  to  create 
something  beautiful,  and  with  it  was  the  belief  that  he 
could  provide  well  for  his  wife  and  children,  and  raise 
the  potter's  art  to  a  new  height  if  he  could  learn  the 
secret  of  this  enamel.  That  thought  became  his  lode- 
stone,  and  he  left  all  his  other  work  to  accomplish  it 
Much  as  he  knew  about  glass,  he  knew  nothing  about 
enamel.  He  had  no  notion  of  the  materials  he 
should  need,  nor  how  he  was  to  combine  them.  He 
started  to  make  earthen  vessels  without  knowing  how 
other  men  had  made  them.  He  knew  that  he  should 
need  a  furnace,  and  so  he  built  one,  although  he  had 
never  seen  a  furnace  fired. 

The  attempt  seemed  foolhardy  from  the  start.     What 


PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL  45 

he  had  saved  he  spent  in  his  attempts  to  find  the  right 
materials.  Soon  his  savings  were  gone,  and  he  had 
to  look  about  for  a  new  means  of  living.  A  survey 
and  plan  of  the  great  salt-marshes  of  Saintonge  was 
wanted  in  1543,  and  Palissy  obtained  the  work.  He 
finished  it,  was  paid  the  stipulated  sum,  and  immedi- 
ately spent  it  in  fresh  experiments  to  find  the  coveted 
enamel.  But  he  could  not  find  it.  One  experiment 
after  another  ended  in  rebuff.  He  labored  day  and 
night,  and  the  result  of  all  his  labors  was  the  same. 
But  the  desire  to  find  that  enamel  had  possessed  Pa- 
lissy's  mind,  and  it  was  not  a  mind  to  veer  or  change. 

The  man  was  beset  by  friends  who  told  him  he  was 
mad  to  continue  the  chase,  and  that  his  undoubted  talents 
in  other  lines  were  being  wasted.  He  was  implored, 
reproached,  and  belabored  by  his  wife,  who  begged 
him  to  leave  his  furnace,  and  turn  to  work  that  would 
feed  and  clothe  his  growing  family.  He  might  well 
have  seemed  a  fanatic,  he  might  well  have  seemed 
distraught  and  cruel  to  his  family,  but  he  met  each 
protest  with  a  simple  frankness  that  disarmed  all  at- 
tacks and  showed  his  indomitable  purpose.  Those 
were  days  of  intense  suffering  for  Palissy,  and  later 
he  described  them  in  his  own  writings  in  a  way  that 
showed  his  real  depth  of  feeling  and  his  constant 
struggle  against  what  he  held  to  be  temptations. 

He  borrowed  money  to  build  a  new  furnace,  and 
when  this  was  done  he  lived  by  it,  trying  one  combi- 
nation of  materials  after  another  in  his  search  for  the 
secret  of  the  enamel.  Those  were  superstitious  days, 
and  some  of  his  more  ignorant  neighbors  thought 


46  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

that  Bernard  Palissy  must  be  in  league  with  the  devil, 
since  he  spent  day  and  night  feeding  fuel  to  his  fur- 
nace, and  sending  a  great  volume  of  smoke  and 
sparks  into  the  air.  Some  said  he  was  an  alchemist 
trying  to  turn  base  metals  into  gold,  some  that  he 
was  discovering  new  poisons,  some  frankly  believed 
that  his  learning  had  turned  his  mind  and  made  him 
mad.  They  were  all  certain  of  one  thing,  and  that 
was  that  his  great  fires  were  providing  very  ill  for 
his  family,  who  became  in  time  a  charge  on  the  town's 
charity. 

For  sixteen  years  Palissy  experimented.  For  six- 
teen years  he  had  to  resist  the  reproaches  of  wife  and 
children,  and  the  threats  of  neighbors.  That  was  an 
epic  struggle,  well  worth  the  recording.  We  can  pic- 
ture the  little  mediaeval  town,  surrounded  by  its  salt 
marshes,  the  prosperous  burghers,  and  the  strange 
man,  Bernard  Palissy,  at  whom  all  others  scoffed, 
whose  children  played  in  the  streets  in  rags  and  tatters, 
but  who,  himself,  was  always  working  at  his  furnace 
with  demoniac  zeal.  "  Too  much  learning,"  says  one 
burgher,  shaking  his  head.  "What  business  had  a 
simple  glass- worker  to  study  those  texts  out  of  Italy  ?  " 
"Seeking  for  more  learning  than  other  folk  have  is 
apt  to  league  one  with  the  Evil  One,"  says  number  two. 
"  Bernard  has  sold  his  soul.  He  will  fall  in  his  furnace 
some  day,  and  go  up  in  smoke."  "Nay,"  says  the 
third  burgher,  "  he  will  live  forever,  to  bring  shame  to 
our  town  of  Saintes.  He  is  like  one  of  those  plagues 
the  priests  tell  us  of."  And  he  crosses  himself  de- 
voutly. 


PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL  47 

But  Palissy  cared  for  nothing  but  to  learn  that 
secret.  At  first  he  had  had  a  workman  to  help  him ; 
now  he  let  him  go.  He  had  no  money  to  pay  him, 
and  so  gave  him  all  his  clothes  except  those  he  had  on. 
He  knew  his  family  were  starving,  and  he  dared  not 
go  out  into  the  streets  for  fear  of  the  maledictions  of 
his  neighbors.  But  he  fed  that  furnace  and  he  melted 
his  different  compositions.  When  he  could  get  no 
other  fuel  he  turned  to  the  scant  furnishings  of  his 
house.  He  burned  his  bed  and  chairs,  his  table,  and 
everything  that  was  made  of  wood.  He  felt  that  he 
was  now  on  the  verge  of  his  discovery ;  but  he  must 
have  more  fire.  He  tore  strips  of  board  from  the 
walls,  and  piled  them  in  the  furnace.  Still  he  needed 
more  heat,  and  ran  out  into  the  yard  behind  his  dwell- 
ing. There  were  sticks  that  supported  vines,  and  a 
fence  that  ran  between  his  land  and  the  next.  He  took 
the  wood  of  the  fence,  the  sticks  of  the  vines,  and  hur- 
ried back  with  them  to  the  furnace.  He  threw  them 
on  the  blaze,  he  bent  over  his  composition,  and  he 
found  the  secret  answered  for  him.  After  sixteen  years 
he  learned  how  to  make  that  rare  enamel. 

It  was  a  glorious  achievement,  and  it  brought  Palissy 
fame  and  fortune.  With  his  new  knowledge  he  had 
soon  fashioned  pottery,  decorated  with  rustic  scenes, 
and  exquisitely  enameled,  that  all  lovers  of  works  of 
art  desired  at  any  price.  The  first  pieces  of  his  rustic 
pottery  soon  reached  the  court  of  France,  and  Henry 
II  and  his  nobles  ordered  vases  and  figures  from  him 
to  ornament  the  gardens  of  their  chateaux.  Catherine 
de'  Medici  became  his  patron,  and  the  powerful  Con- 


48  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

stable  de  Montmorenci  sent  to  Saintes  for  Palissy  to 
decorate  his  chateau  at  Ecouen.  Fragments  of  this 
work  have  been  preserved,  exquisite  painted  tiles,  and 
also  painted  glass,  setting  forth  the  story  of  Psyche, 
which  Palissy  prepared  for  the  chateau. 

The  people  of  Saintes  now  found  that  their  madman, 
instead  of  bringing  obloquy  upon  their  town,  was  to 
bring  it  fame.  The  Reformation  had  made  many 
Protestants  in  that  part  of  France,  and  Palissy  was  one 
of  them.  But  when  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux,  in 
1562,  ordered  the  execution  of  the  edict  of  1559,  that 
had  been  directed  against  the  Protestants,  the  Catholic 
Duke  of  Montpensier  gave  him  a  special  safeguard, 
and  ordered  that  his  porcelain  factory  should  be 
exempted  from  the  general  proscription.  Party  feeling 
ran  very  high,  however,  and  in  spite  of  the  Duke's 
safeguard  Palissy  was  arrested,  his  workshop  ordered 
destroyed  by  the  judges  at  Saintes,  and  the  King  him- 
self had  to  send  a  special  messenger  to  the  town  and 
claim  that  Palissy  was  his  own  servant,  in  order  to  save 
his  life.  The  royal  family,  in  spite  of  their  many 
faults,  were  sincere  lovers  of  beautiful  workmanship, 
and  they  summoned  Palissy  to  Paris,  where  they  could 
insure  his  safety.  Catherine  de'  Medici  gave  him  a  site 
for  his  workshop  on  a  part  of  the  ground  where  the 
Palace  of  the  Tuilleries  stood  later,  and  used  often  to 
visit  him  and  talk  with  him  about  his  art.  He  made 
the  finest  pieces  of  his  porcelain  here  in  Paris.  Here 
he  also  resumed  his  earlier  studies,  and  came  to  lecture 
on  natural  history  and  physics  to  all  the  great  scholars 
of  the  day.  When  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's 


PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL  49 

Eve  deluged  France  with  the  blood  of  Protestants 
Catherine  saw  that  Palissy  was  spared  from  the  general 
destruction. 

Palissy  had  shown  the  inborn  courage  of  his  nature 
during  those  sixteen  lean  years  in  Saintes.  The  peril- 
ous ups  and  downs  of  life  in  sixteenth  century  France 
were  to  show  that  courage  in  another  light  In  spite 
of  royal  favor  the  Catholic  League  reached  for  him, 
and  in  1588,  when  he  was  nearly  eighty  years  old,  he 
was  arrested  by  order  of  the  Sixteen,  thrown  into  the 
Bastille,  and  threatened  with  death.  Henry  III,  son 
of  Catherine,  and  in  his  own  way  a  friend  of  artists, 
went  to  see  Palissy  in  prison.  "  My  good  friend,"  said 
the  King,  "  you  have  now  been  five  and  forty  years  in 
the  service  of  my  mother  and  myself ;  we  have  allowed 
you  to  retain  your  religion  in  the  midst  of  fire  and 
slaughter.  Now  I  am  so  pressed  by  the  Guises  and 
my  own  people  that  I  am  constrained  to  deliver  you 
up  into  the  hands  of  your  enemies,  and  to-morrow  you 
will  be  burned  unless  you  are  converted." 

"  Sire,"  answered  the  old  man,  "  I  am  ready  to  re- 
sign my  life  for  the  glory  of  God.  You  have  told  me 
several  times  that  you  pity  me,  and  I,  in  my  turn,  pity 
you,  who  have  used  the  words  /  am  constrained.  It 
was  not  spoken  like  a  king,  sire  ;  and  these  are  words 
which  neither  you  nor  those  who  constrain  you,  the 
Guisards  and  all  your  people,  will  ever  be  able  to  make 
me  utter,  for  I  know  how  to  die." 

The  King,  however,  admiring  Palissy's  talents,  and 
remembering  his  mother's  fondness  for  the  artist, 
would  not  give  him  up  to  the  party  of  the  League. 


50  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Instead  he  let  him  remain  in  his  dungeon  in  the  Bastille, 
where  he  died  in  1589. 

The  maker  of  Palissy  ware,  as  it  is  called,  had  many 
talents,  and  among  them  was  that  of  the  writer.  Dur- 
ing his  days  in  prison  he  busied  himself  in  penning 
his  philosophic,  religious,  and  artistic  meditations,  as 
many  other  illustrious  prisoners  have  done.  His  auto- 
biography is  curious,  and  its  note  of  sincerity  has  given 
it  great  value  as  a  human  document.  Says  Lamartine 
of  the  writings  of  Palissy,  they  are  "  real  treasures  of 
human  wisdom,  divine  piety,  and  eminent  genius,  as 
well  as  of  great  simplicity,  vigor,  and  copiousness  of 
style.  It  is  impossible,  after  reading  them,  not  to  con- 
sider the  poor  potter  one  of  the  greatest  writers  of 
the  French  language.  Montaigne  is  not  more  free 
and  flowing,  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau  is  scarcely  more 
graphic ;  neither  does  Bossuet  excel  him  in  poetical 
power." 

But  Palissy  did  not  explain  his  art  of  enamel  in  de- 
tail in  any  of  his  writings,  and  after  the  death  of  his 
brothers  or  nephews,  who  succeeded  to  his  work,  the 
secret  of  Palissy  ware,  like  that  of  certain  other  arts  of 
the  Renaissance,  was  lost. 

Palissy  did  not  decorate  his  porcelain  with  flat  paint- 
ing. His  figures,  which  usually  dealt  with  historical, 
mythological,  or  allegorical  subjects,  were  executed  in 
relief,  and  colored.  These  colors  were  bright,  and  were 
generally  yellows,  blues,  and  grays,  although  some- 
times he  used  greens,  violets,  and  browns.  He  never 
acquired  the  pure  white  enamel  of  Luca  della  Robbia, 
.nor  that  of  the  faience  of  Nevers.  His  enamel  is  hard, 


PALISSY  AND  HIS  ENAMEL  51 

but  the  glaze  is  not  so  fine  as  that  of  Delft.  The  back 
of  his  ware  is  never  all  the  same  color,  but  usually 
mottled  with  several  colors,  often  yellow,  blue,  and 
brown. 

Palissy's  studies  in  natural  history  helped  him  when 
he  came  to  decorate  his  pottery.  The  figures  are 
strikingly  true  in  form  and  color,  and  seem  to  have 
been  moulded  directly  from  nature,  as  they  probably 
were.  Thus  the  fossil  shells  which  he  frequently  used 
in  his  border  decorations  are  the  shells  found  in  the 
Paris  basin,  his  fish  are  those  of  the  Seine,  his  plants, 
usually  the  watercress,  the  hart's  tongue,  and  the 
maidenhair  fern,  are  those  which  he  found  in  the 
country  about  Paris.  His  rustic  scenes  have  that  same 
charm  of  fidelity  to  nature. 

He  also  made  very  beautiful  tiles  to  overlay  walls, 
stoves,  and  floors.  The  chateau  at  Ecouen  has  a  large 
room  entirely  paved  with  them,  and  many  are  to  be 
seen  in  the  chapel.  They  bear  heraldic  designs,  the 
devices  of  the  Constable  de  Montmorenci,  and  the 
colors  are  fresh  and  bright,  due  to  the  artist's  unique 
method  of  enameling. 

Like  so  many  Renaissance  artists  Palissy  tried  his 
skill  in  many  lines.  If  his  most  remarkable  work  was 
his  "rustic  pieces,"  as  they  are  called,  great  dishes 
ornamented  with  fishes,  reptiles,  frogs,  shells,  and 
plants  in  relief,  intended  to  be  used  as  ornaments  and 
not  for  service,  scarcely  less  interesting  were  his 
statuettes,  his  stands  for  fountains,  his  "  rustic  figures  " 
for  gardens,  his  candlesticks,  ewers  and  basins,  saltcel- 
lars, ink-stands,  and  baskets.  Large  collections  of  his 


52  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

work  are  to  be  found  in  the  Louvre,  the  Hotel  de 
Cluny,  and  at  Sevres.  Many  pieces  have  strayed  into 
the  hands  of  great  private  collectors  of  rare  porcelain, 
and  both  England  and  Russia  have  many  fine  examples 
of  his  masterpieces. 

He  had  two  assistants,  either  brothers  or  nephews, 
and  they  knew  the  secret  of  his  process.  They  had 
worked  with  him,  and  they  continued  his  art  into  the 
reign  of  Henry  IV.  One  of  their  productions  shows 
that  king  surrounded  by  his  family.  But  these  succes- 
sors had  not  the  artistic  instinct  or  touch  of  the  master. 
They  had  little  originality,  and  speedily  became  servile 
copyists,  so  that  Palissy  ware  for  a  time  lost  the  high 
place  it  had  held.  But  these  successors  did  not  hand 
on  the  secret,  and  when  no  more  of  the  ware  was  forth- 
coming good  judges  of  the  potter's  art  found  it  easy  to 
distinguish  between  the  work  of  Bernard  and  of  his 
followers,  and  his  own  porcelain  was  again  enthroned 
among  the  greatest  productions  of  French  art.  Con- 
noisseurs of  to-day  find  it  easy  to  know  real  Palissy 
ware. 

Such  is  the  story  of  a  great  artist  of  the  Renaissance 
in  France,  of  a  man  born  with  the  love  of  beauty,  who 
found  a  new  way  of  giving  the  world  delight,  and  who 
overcame  what  seemed  almost  superhuman  trials. 


Ill 

GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE 
1564-1642 

THREE  days  before  the  death  of  the  great  Italian 
Michael  Angelo,  in  the  year  1564,  there  was  born  in 
Pisa  a  boy  who  was  given  the  name  of  Galileo  Galilei, 
and  who  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  greatest 
philosophers  and  inventors  the  world  has  ever  known. 
He  came  of  a  noble  family  of  Florence,  which  had 
originally  borne  the  name  of  Bonajuti,  but  had  later 
changed  it  to  that  of  Galilei,  and  he  is  usually  known 
by  his  baptismal  name  of  Galileo,  according  to  the 
Italian  custom  of  that  age.  His  father  was  a  merchant, 
engaged  in  business  in  Pisa,  a  man  well  versed  in  the 
Latin  and  Greek  tongues,  and  well  known  for  his 
knowledge  of  mathematics.  He  was  anxious  that  each 
of  his  three  sons  should  have  a  good  education,  and  so 
he  sent  Galileo,  his  eldest  boy,  to  the  famous  monastery 
of  Vallombrosa,  situated  in  a  beautiful  wooded  valley  not 
far  from  Florence.  But  the  father  did  not  intend  his 
son  to  become  a  priest,  and  so,  when  he  found  his 
thoughts  tending  in  that  direction,  he  took  him  away 
from  the  monastery,  planning  to  make  him  a  merchant 
like  himself. 

But  the  mind  of  the  young  Galileo  was  already 
remarkably  acute.  He  was  a  good  musician,  a  skilful 


54  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

draughtsman  and  painter,  something  of  a  poet,  and 
had  shown  considerable  talent  in  designing  and  build- 
ing a  variety  of  toy  machines.  His  father  soon  decided 
that  his  son's  bent  did  not  lie  in  the  direction  of  a  dealer 
in  cloths,  and,  casting  about  for  a  scientific  career, 
chose  that  of  medicine  for  Galileo.  So  he  took  up  this 
study  at  the  University  of  Pisa. 

One  afternoon  the  youth  of  eighteen  went  to  the 
great  Cathedral  of  the  city.  He  knelt  to  make  his 
devotions.  From  the  roof  of  the  nave  hung  a  large 
bronze  lamp,  and  as  the  boy  watched  he  saw  an  at- 
tendant draw  the  lamp  toward  him  to  light  it,  and  then 
let  it  swing  back  again.  The  swinging  caught  his  at- 
tention, and  he  watched  it  with  more  and  more  interest. 
At  first  the  arc  of  the  swinging  lamp  was  wide,  but 
gradually  it  grew  less  and  less.  But  what  struck  him 
as  singular  was  that  the  oscillations  all  seemed  to  be 
made  in  the  same  time.  He  had  no  watch,  so  he  put 
his  fingers  on  his  wrist  in  order  to  note  the  pulse-beats. 
As  nearly  as  he  could  determine  the  swings  of  the  lamp 
as  they  lessened  were  keeping  the  same  times. 

When  he  went  home  he  began  to  experiment  with 
this  idea  of  the  swinging  lamp,  or  pendulum  as  it  came 
to  be  called,  and  soon  had  constructed  an  instrument 
which  marked  with  very  fair  accuracy  the  rate  and  va- 
riation of  the  pulse-beats.  It  was  imperfect  in  many 
respects,  but  when  he  showed  it  to  his  teachers  at  the 
university  they  were  delighted  with  it,  and  it  was  soon 
generally  used  by  the  physicians  of  the  day  under  the 
name  of  the  Pulsilogia. 

But,  to  his  father's  dismay,  the  young  Galileo  did 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  55 

not  show  great  interest  in  the  study  of  medicine.  In- 
stead he  spent  his  time  studying  the  mathematics  of 
Euclid,  and  from  them  went  on  to  the  writings  of  Archi- 
medes and  the  laws  of  mechanics.  These  latter  ab- 
sorbed him,  and  fresh  from  reading  them  he  con- 
structed for  himself  a  hydrostatic  balance,  the  purpose  of 
which  was  to  ascertain  accurately  the  relative  propor- 
tions of  any  two  metals  in  an  alloy.  He  wrote  an 
essay  on  his  invention,  and  circulated  it  among  his 
friends  and  teachers.  This  added  to  his  reputation  as 
a  scientist,  but  brought  him  no  money.  His  family 
were  poor,  and  he  needed  a  means  of  support,  and  so 
he  applied  for,  and  after  a  time  obtained,  appointment 
to  the  post  of  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pisa. 

For  centuries  the  laws  of  mechanics  as  laid  down  by 
the  Greek  Aristotle  had  been  accepted  without  much 
dispute  by  the  civilized  world.  But  a  spirit  of  new 
thought  and  investigation  was  now  risiug  in  Europe, 
and  more  especially  in  Italy.  Galileo  determined  to 
study  the  laws  of  mechanics  by  experiment,  and  not,  as 
so  many  earlier  scientists  had  done,  by  argument  or 
mere  theoretical  opinions.  Therefore  he  undertook  to 
establish  definitely  the  laws  relating  to  falling  bodies. 

Aristotle,  almost  two  thousand  years  before,  had  an- 
nounced that  if  two  bodies  of  different  weights  were 
dropped  from  the  same  height  the  heavier  would  reach 
the  ground  sooner  than  the  lighter,  according  to  the 
proportion  of  their  weights.  Galileo  doubted  this,  and 
decided  to  try  it.  Accordingly  he  assembled  the 
teachers  and  students  of  the  university  one  morning 


56  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

about  the  base  of  the  famous  Leaning  Tower  of  Pisa. 
He  himself  climbed  to  the  top,  carrying  with  him  a 
ten-pound  shot  and  a  one-pound  shot.  He  balanced 
them  on  the  edge  of  the  tower  and  let  them  fall  to- 
gether. They  struck  the  ground  together.  As  a 
result  of  this  experiment  Galileo  declared  three  laws  in 
relation  to  falling  bodies.  He  said  that  if  one  neg- 
lected the  resistance  of  the  air,  or  in  other  words  sup- 
posed the  bodies  to  fall  through  a  vacuum,  it  would  be 
found,  first,  that  all  bodies  fall  from  the  same  height  in 
equal  times  ;  second,  that  in  falling  the  final  velocities 
are  proportional  to  the  times  ;  and  third,  that  the  spaces 
fallen  through  are  proportional  to  the  squares  of  the 
times. 

The  first  of  these  laws  was  shown  by  his  experiment 
on  the  Leaning  Tower.  To  show  the  others  he  built  a 
straight  inclined  plane  with  a  groove  down  its  centre. 
A  bronze  ball  was  free  to  move  in  the  groove  with  the 
least  possible  friction.  By  means  of  this  he  showed 
that  no  matter  how  much  he  inclined  the  plane,  and  so 
changed  the  time,  the  ball  would  always  move  down 
it  according  to  the  laws  he  had  stated. 

But  in  disproving  the  accuracy  of  the  old  laws  of 
Aristotle  the  young  scientist  had  raised  a  hornet's  nest 
about  his  ears.  The  men  of  the  old  school  would  not 
believe  him,  a  conspiracy  was  set  on  foot  against  him, 
and  finally  the  criticism  of  his  new  teachings  grew  so 
severe  that  he  was  forced  to  resign  his  position,  and 
move  to  Florence. 

In  spite  of  his  wide-spread  reputation  no  school  or 
university  was  ready  to  welcome  the  young  scientist 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  57 

He  was  known  as  a  man  of  a  very  original  turn  of 
mind,  and  therefore  one  who  would  be  apt  to  clash 
with  those  who  clung  to  their  belief  in  the  old  order  of 
thought.  At  last,  however,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining 
the  chair  of  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  the  University 
of  Padua,  then  one  of  the  greatest  seats  of  learning  in 
Italy.  Here  again  he  showed  the  great  scope  of  his 
knowledge,  and  wrote  on  military  architecture  and 
fortifications,  the  laws  of  motion,  of  the  sphere,  and 
various  branches  of  mechanics.  He  invented  a  ma- 
chine for  raising  water,  and  was  granted  a  patent  which 
secured  him  his  rights  in  it  for  twenty  years,  and  he 
also  produced  what  he  called  his  Geometrical  and  Mil- 
itary Compass,  but  what  was  later  commonly  known 
as  the  Sector. 

Galileo's  fame  as  a  teacher  had  now  spread  widely 
throughout  Europe,  and  students  began  to  flock  to 
Padua  to  study  under  him.  He  had  a  large  house, 
where  a  number  of  his  private  pupils  lived  with  him,  a 
garden,  in  which  he  delighted,  and  a  workshop.  Here 
he  experimented  on  his  next  invention,  that  of  the  air 
thermometer.  One  of  his  friends,  Castelli,  wrote  of 
this  in  a  letter  many  years  later,  dated  1638.  "I  re- 
member," he  writes,  "  an  experiment  which  our  Signer 
Galileo  had  shown  me  more  than  thirty-five  years  ago. 
He  took  a  small  glass  bottle  about  the  size  of  a  hen's 
egg,  the  neck  of  which  was  two  palms  long,  and  as 
narrow  as  a  straw.  Having  well  heated  the  bulb  in 
his  hand,  he  inserted  its  mouth  in  a  vessel  containing 
a  little  water,  and,  withdrawing  the  heat  of  his  hand 
from  the  bulb,  instantly  the  water  rose  in  the  neck 


58  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

more  than  a  palm  above  its  level  in  the  vessel.  It  is 
thus  that  he  constructed  an  instrument  for  measuring 
the  degrees  of  heat  and  cold." 

In  1604  the  attention  of  all  the  astronomers  of  Europe 
was  attracted  by  a  new  star  which  suddenly  appeared 
in  the  constellation  Serpentarius.  Galileo  studied  it, 
and  shortly  began  to  lecture  on  the  comparatively  new 
science  of  astronomy.  Formerly  he  had  taught  the 
old  system  of  Aristotle  to  his  classes,  now,  after  a 
searching  investigation,  he  declared  his  belief  in  the 
contrary  conclusions  of  Copernicus.  This  study  led 
him  on  and  on.  He  became  interested  in  the  magnetic 
needle,  and  its  use  as  a  compass  in  navigation.  Co- 
lumbus' discovery  of  its  changing  its  position  according 
to  its  relation  to  the  North  Pole  took  place  on  his  first 
voyage  to  America,  and  reports  of  this  had  reached 
Padua.  All  educated  men  were  rousing  to  the  fact 
that  the  age  was  fertile  with  new  discoveries  in  every 
branch  of  knowledge,  and  Galileo  and  those  who  were 
working  with  him  gave  eager  heed  to  each  month's 
batch  of  news. 

Mere  chance  is  said  to  have  brought  about  the  mak- 
ing of  the  first  telescope.  The  story  goes  that  an 
apprentice  of  Hans  Lipperhey,  an  optician  of  Middle- 
burg,  in  Holland,  was,  one  day  in  October,  1608,  play- 
ing with  some  spectacle  lenses  in  his  master's  shop. 
He  noticed  that  by  holding  two  of  the  lenses  in  a 
certain  position  he  obtained  a  large  and  inverted  view 
of  whatever  he  looked  at.  He  told  Master  Hans  about 
this,  and  the  optician  fixed  two  lenses  in  a  tube,  and 
looking  at  the  weathercock  on  a  neighboring  steeple 


GALILEO'S  TELESCOPE 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  59 

saw  that  it  seemed  much  nearer  and  to  be  upside 
down.  He  hung  the  tube  in  his  shop  as  a  curious 
toy,  and  one  day  the  Marquis  Spinola  examined  it  and 
bought  it  to  present  to  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau.  Soon 
a  number  of  Hans  Lipperhey's  scientific  neighbors 
were  trying  to  make  copies  of  his  tube,  and  before  very 
long  reports  of  it  were  carried  to  Italy.  The  news 
reached  Galileo  while  on  a  visit  to  Venice  in  June,  1609. 
This  is  his  account  of  what  followed,  taken  from  a  letter 
written  to  his  brother-in-law  Landucci,  and  dated 
August  29,  1609. 

"  You  must  know  then  that  about  two  months  ago  a 
report  was  spread  here  that  in  Flanders  a  spy-glass  had 
been  presented  to  Prince  Maurice,  so  ingeniously  con- 
structed that  it  made  the  most  distant  objects  appear 
quite  near,  so  that  a  man  could  be  seen  quite  plainly  at 
a  distance  of  two  miles.  This  result  seemed  to  me  so 
extraordinary  that  it  set  me  thinking,  and  as  it  ap- 
peared to  me  that  it  depended  upon  the  laws  of  per- 
spective, I  reflected  on  the  manner  of  constructing 
it,  and  was  at  length  so  entirely  successful  that  I  made 
a  spy-glass  which  far  surpasses  the  report  of  the 
Flanders  one.  As  the  news  had  reached  Venice  that  I 
had  made  such  an  instrument,  six  days  ago  I  was  sum- 
moned before  their  Highnesses,  the  Signoria,  and 
exhibited  it  to  them,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  whole 
senate.  Many  of  the  nobles  and  senators,  although  of 
a  great  age,  mounted  more  than  once  to  the  top  of  the 
highest  church  tower  in  Venice,  in  order  to  see  sails 
and  shipping  that  were  so  far  off  that  it  was  two  hours 
before  they  were  seen,  without  my  spy-glass,  steering 


60  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

full  sail  into  the  harbor  ;  for  the  effect  of  my  instrument 
is  such  that  it  makes  an  object  fifty  miles  off  appear  as 
large  as  if  it  were  only  five. 

44  Perceiving  of  what  great  utility  such  an  instrument 
would  prove  in  naval  and  military  operations,  and  see- 
ing that  His  Serenity  the  Doge  desired  to  possess  it, 
I  resolved  on  the  24th  inst.  to  go  to  the  palace  and  pre- 
sent it  as  a  free  gift."  So  Galileo  did,  and  as  a  result 
the  senate  elected  him  to  the  Professorship  at  Padua 
for  life,  with  a  salary  of  one  thousand  florins  yearly. 

But  what  were  Galileo's  claims  to  the  invention  of 
this  great  instrument  ?  Here  is  what  he  wrote  in  1623. 
"  Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  no  great  credit  is  due  for 
the  making  of  an  instrument,  or  the  solution  of  a  prob- 
lem, when  one  is  told  beforehand  that  the  instrument 
exists,  or  that  the  problem  is  solvable.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  certitude  of  the  existence  of  such  a  glass  aided 
me,  and  that  without  this  knowledge  I  would  never 
have  succeeded.  To  this  I  reply,  the  help  which  the 
information  gave  me  consisted  in  exciting  my  thoughts 
in  a  particular  direction,  and  without  that,  it  is  pos- 
sible they  may  never  have  been  directed  that  way ;  but 
that  such  information  made  the  act  of  invention  easier 
to  me  I  deny,  and  I  say  more — to  find  the  solution  of  a 
definite  problem  requires  a  greater  effort  of  genius 
than  to  resolve  one  not  specified  ;  for  in  the  latter  case 
hazard,  chance,  may  play  the  greater  part,  while  in  the 
former  all  is  the  work  of  the  reasoning  and  intelligent 
mind.  Thus,  we  are  certain  that  the  Dutchman,  the 
first  inventor  of  the  telescope,  was  a  simple  spectacle- 
maker,  who,  handling  by  chance  different  forms  of 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  61 

glasses,  looked,  also  by  chance,  through  two  of  them, 
one  convex  and  the  other  concave,  held  at  different  dis- 
tances from  the  eye ;  saw  and  noted  the  unexpected 
result ;  and  thus  found  the  instrument.  On  the  other 
hand,  I,  on  the  simple  information  of  the  effect 
obtained,  discovered  the  same  instrument,  not  by 
chance,  but  by  the  way  of  pure  reasoning.  Here  are 
the  steps  :  the  artifice  of  the  instrument  depends  either 
on  one  glass  or  on  several.  It  cannot  depend  on  one,  for 
that  must  be  either  convex,  or  concave,  or  plain.  The 
last  form  neither  augments  nor  diminishes  visible  ob- 
jects ;  the  concave  diminishes  them,  the  convex  increases 
them,  but  both  show  them  blurred  and  indistinct.  Pass- 
ing then  to  the  combination  of  two  glasses,  and  know- 
ing that  glasses  with  plain  surfaces  change  nothing, 
I  concluded  that  the  effect  could  not  be  produced  by 
combining  a  plain  glass  with  a  convex  or  a  concave 
one  ;  I  was  thus  left  with  the  two  other  kinds  of  glasses, 
and  after  a  few  experiments  I  saw  how  the  effect 
sought  could  be  produced.  Such  was  the  march  of  my 
discovery,  in  which  I  was  not  assisted  in  any  way  by 
the  knowledge  that  the  conclusion  at  which  I  aimed 
was  a  verity." 

The  telescope  that  Galileo  presented  to  the  Doge  of 
Venice,  and  which  was  later  lost,  consisted  of  a  tube 
of  lead,  with  what  is  called  a  plano-concave  eye-glass 
and  a  plano-convex  object  glass,  and  had  a  magnifying 
power  of  three  diameters,  which  made  objects  look 
three  times  nearer  than  they  actually  were,  and  as  a 
result  nine  times  larger.  The  tube  was  about  seventy 
centimeters  long  and  about  forty-five  millimeters  in  di- 


62  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

ameter.  It  was  first  used  in  public  from  the  top  of  the 
campanile  in  the  piazza  at  Venice  on  August  21,  1609, 
and  the  most  distant  object  that  could  be  seen  through 
it  was  the  campanile  of  the  church  of  San  Giustina  in 
Padua,  about  thirty-five  kilometers  away. 

As  soon  as  Galileo  returned  to  his  home  in  Padua  he 
busied  himself  with  improving  his  invention.  First 
he  constructed  a  new  telescope,  which  as  he  said  "  made 
objects  appear  more  than  sixty  times  larger."  Soon  he 
had  a  still  better  one,  which  enlarged  four  hundred 
times.  He  used  this  to  examine  the  moon,  and  said 
that  it  brought  that  body  "  to  a  distance  of  less  than 
three  semi-diameters  of  the  earth,  thus  making  it  ap- 
pear about  twenty  times  nearer  and  four  hundred  times 
larger  than  when  seen  by  the  unaided  eye."  To  use 
the  instrument  more  accurately  he  built  a  support 
which  held  it  firmly.  He  had  also  now  learned  to 
make  the  lenses  adjustable,  by  fixing  the  tubes  that 
held  them  so  that  they  could  be  drawn  out  of,  or 
pushed  into  the  main  tube  of  the  telescope.  To  see 
objects  not  very  far  distant  very  clearly  he  would  push 
the  glasses  a  little  way  apart,  and  to  see  things  very  far 
distant  he  drew  the  glasses  together. 

But  this  last  telescope  did  not  altogether  satisfy  him, 
and  so  he  built  a  still  larger  one.  This  brought  ob- 
jects more  than  thirty  times  closer  and  showed  them  al- 
most a  thousand  times  larger  in  size.  With  this  he 
discovered  the  moons  of  Jupiter,  and  some  of  the  fixed 
stars,  and  added  much  to  what  was  already  known 
concerning  the  Milky  Way,  a  region  of  the  sky  which 
had  long  been  a  puzzle  to  astronomers. 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  63 

He  spent  a  great  part  of  his  time  now  in  his  work- 
shop, making  and  grinding  glasses.  They  were  expen- 
sive and  very  difficult  to  prepare  properly.  Out  of 
more  than  one  hundred  that  he  ground  at  first  he  found 
only  ten  that  would  show  him  the  newly  found  moons 
of  Jupiter.  The  object  glasses  were  the  more  difficult, 
for  it  was  this  glass  which  had  to  bring  to  a  focus  as 
accurately  as  possible  all  the  rays  of  light  that  passed 
into  the  telescope. 

As  the  voyage  of  Columbus  had  brought  a  new 
world  in  the  western  ocean  to  the  notice  of  Europe,  so 
Galileo's  discoveries  with  his  telescope  brought  forth 
a  new  world  in  the  skies.  Galileo  wrote  out  state- 
ments of  his  discoveries,  and  sent  these,  with  his  new 
telescopes,  to  the  princes  and  learned  men  of  Italy, 
France,  Flanders,  and  Germany.  At  all  the  courts  and 
universities  the  telescopes  were  received  with  the  great- 
est enthusiasm,  and  put  to  instant  use  in  the  hope  of 
discovering  new  stars.  But  again  the  followers  of 
Aristotle,  those  who  were  unwilling  to  admit  that  any- 
thing new  could  be  learned  about  the  laws  of  nature  or 
the  universe,  arose  in  wrath.  They  attacked  Galileo 
and  his  discoveries.  They  would  not  admit  that 
Jupiter  had  four  attendant  moons,  although  these 
satellites  could  be  seen  by  any  one  through  the  tele- 
scope, and  a  little  later,  when  Galileo  stated  that  the 
planet  Saturn  was  composed  of  three  stars  which 
touched  each  other  (later  found  to  be  one  planet  with 
two  rings)  they  rose  up  to  denounce  him.  But  as  yet 
these  protests  against  the  discoverer  had  little  effect. 
Europe  was  too  much  interested  in  what  he  was  show- 


64  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

ing  it  to  realize  how  deeply  he  might  affect  men's  views 
of  the  universe. 

Fame  was  now  safely  his.  Men  came  from  all  parts 
of  Europe  to  study  under  this  wonderful  professor  of 
Padua.  But  teaching  gave  him  too  little  time  to  carry 
on  his  own  researches.  So  he  looked  about  for  some 
other  position  that  would  give  him  greater  leisure,  and 
finally  stated  his  wishes  to  Cosimo  II,  Duke  of  Florence. 
Galileo  had  named  the  satellites  of  Jupiter  after  the 
house  of  Medici,  to  which  this  Duke  belonged,  and 
Cosimo  was  much  flattered  at  the  compliment.  As 
a  result  he  was  soon  after  made  First  Mathematician 
of  the  University  of  Pisa,  and  also  Philosopher 
and  Mathematician  to  the  Grand  Duke's  Court  of 
Florence. 

Settled  at  last  at  Florence  his  work  as  an  astronomer 
steadily  went  forward.  He  discovered  that  the  planet 
Venus  had  a  varying  crescent  form,  that  there  were 
small  spots  circling  across  the  face  of  the  sun,  which  he 
called  sun-spots,  and  later  that  there  were  mountains 
on  the  moon.  He  also  visited  Rome,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived with  the  greatest  good-will  by  Pope  Paul  V  and 
his  cardinals,  and  where  he  met  the  leading  scientists 
of  the  capital. 

But  Galileo's  course  was  no  less  flecked  with  light 
and  shade  than  were  the  sun  and  moon  he  studied. 
The  envy  of  rivals  soon  spread  false  reports  about  him, 
and  the  professors  at  Pisa  refused  to  accept  the  results 
of  his  studies.  Then  one  of  the  latter  stirred  the  relig- 
ious scruples  of  the  Dowager  Grand  Duchess  by  telling 
her  that  Galileo's  conclusion  that  the  earth  had  a  double 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  65 

motion  must  be  wrong,  since  it  was  opposed  to  the 
statements  of  the  Bible.  Galileo  heard  of  this,  and 
wrote  a  letter  in  reply,  in  which  he  said  that  in  study- 
ing the  laws  of  nature  men  must  start  with  what  they 
could  prove  by  experiments  instead  of  relying  wholly 
on  the  Scriptures.  This  was  enough  to  set  the  machin- 
ery of  his  enemies  in  motion.  Galileo's  teachings  were 
pointed  out  as  dangerous  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church, 
and  the  officers  of  the  Inquisition  began  to  consider 
how  they  might  best  deal  with  him.  Certain  of  his 
writings  were  declared  false  and  prohibited,  and  he  was 
admonished  that  he  must  follow  certain  lines  in  his 
teachings.  He  went  to  Rome  himself,  and  saw  the 
Pope  again,  but  found  that  his  friends  were  fewer  and 
his  enemies  growing  more  powerful. 

The  theory  of  Copernicus  that  the  earth  and  planets 
are  in  constant  motion  was  the  very  foundation  of 
Galileo's  scientific  studies,  and  yet  the  order  of  the 
Church  now  forbade  him  to  use  this  theory.  He  went 
back  to  Florence  out  of  health  and  despondent.  His 
old  students  were  falling  away  from  him  through  fear 
of  the  Pope's  displeasure,  and  he  was  left  much  alone. 
But  his  thirst  for  knowledge  would  not  let  him  rest. 
He  took  up  his  residence  in  the  fine  old  Torre  del 
Gallo,  which  looks  down  on  Florence  and  the  river 
Arno,  and  went  on  with  his  work.  He  wrote  out  the 
results  of  his  discoveries,  and  made  a  microscope  from 
a  model  he  had  seen.  Soon  he  had  greatly  improved 
upon  his  model,  and  had  an  instrument,  which,  as  he 
said,  "  magnifies  things  as  much  as  50,000  times,  so 
that  one  sees  a  fly  as  large  as  a  hen."  He  sent  copies 


66  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

to  some  friends,  and  shortly  his  microscopes  were  as 
much  in  demand  as  his  telescopes  had  been. 

In  1632  he  published  what  he  called  "  The  Dialogues 
of  Galileo  Galilei."  This  divided  the  world  of  Italy 
into  two  camps,  the  one  those  who  believed  in  Aristotle 
and  the  old  learning,  the  other  those  who  followed 
Copernicus,  Galileo,  and  Kepler.  The  Jesuits  took  up 
the  gage  he  had  thrown  down,  and  Galileo  found  the 
Church  of  Rome  arrayed  against  him.  The  sale  of  his 
book  was  forbidden,  a  commission  was  appointed  to 
bring  charges  against  him,  and  he  was  ordered  to  go 
to  Rome  for  trial.  The  commission  reported  that 
Galileo  had  disobeyed  the  Church's  orders  by  main- 
taining that  the  earth  moves  and  that  the  sun  is 
stationary,  that  he  had  wrongly  declared  that  the  move- 
ments of  the  tides  were  due  to  the  sun's  stability  and 
the  motion  of  the  earth,  and  that  he  had  failed  to  give 
up  his  old  beliefs  in  regard  to  the  sun  and  the  earth  as 
he  had  been  commanded. 

Galileo,  although  he  was  ill,  went  to  Rome,  and  was 
placed  on  trial  before  the  Inquisition.  After  weeks  of 
weary  waiting  and  long  examinations  he  was  ordered 
to  take  a  solemn  oath,  forswearing  his  belief  in  his 
own  writings  and  rejecting  the  conclusion  that  the 
sun  was  stationary  and  that  the  earth  moved.  Rather 
than  suffer  the  pains  of  the  Inquisition  he  agreed, 
and  made  his  solemn  declaration.  According  to  an 
old  story,  now  discredited,  as  he  rose  from  his  knees 
after  the  ceremony  he  whispered  to  a  friend  "  Eppur  si 
muove  "  (It  does  move,  nevertheless).  Whether  he  said 
this  or  not  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  great 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  67 

astronomer  knew  the  performance  was  a  farce,  and 
that  the  world  did  move  in  spite  of  all  the  Inquisition 
could  declare. 

The  Inquisition  did  its  work  ruthlessly.  Notices 
of  the  sentence  prohibiting  the  reading  of  Galileo's 
book  and  ordering  all  copies  of  it  to  be  surren- 
dered, and  copies  of  the  declaration  he  had  made 
denying  his  former  teachings,  were  sent  to  all  the 
courts  of  Europe  and  to  many  of  the  universities. 
In  Padua  the  documents  were  read  to  teachers  and 
students  at  the  university  where  for  so  many  years 
Galileo  had  been  the  greatest  glory  of  learning,  and 
in  Florence  the  Inquisitor  read  the  sentence  publicly 
in  the  church  of  Santa  Croce,  notices  having  been 
sent  to  all  who  were  known  to  be  friends  or  follow- 
ers of  Galileo,  ordering  them  to  attend.  Thus  his 
humiliation  was  spread  broadcast,  and  in  addition  he 
was  ordered  to  be  held  at  Rome  as  a  prisoner. 

After  a  time  he  was  permitted  to  go  on  parole 
to  the  city  of  Siena,  which  was  at  least  nearer  his 
home  outside  Florence.  There  he  stayed  until  the 
Grand  Duke  Cosimo,  who  had  stood  by  him,  per- 
suaded the  Church  that  Galileo's  health  required 
that  he  be  allowed  to  join  his  friends.  At  last  he 
reached  his  home,  and  again  took  up  his  studies. 
His  eyesight  was  failing,  and  eventually  he  became 
entirely  blind,  but  meanwhile  his  speculations  cov- 
ered the  widest  fields  of  science,  he  studied  the  laws 
of  motion  and  equilibrium,  the  velocity  of  light,  the 
problems  of  the  vacuum,  of  the  flight  of  projectiles, 
and  the  mathematical  theory  of  the  parabola.  He 


68  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

wrote  another  book,  dealing  with  two  new  sci- 
ences, and  was  busy  with  designs  for  a  pendulum 
clock  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1642.  He  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  Santa  Croce,  the  Pantheon 
of  Florence,  under  the  same  roof  with  his  great  fellow 
countryman,  Michael  Angelo. 

What  is  known  as  the  modern  refracting  telescope 
is  based  upon  a  different  combination  of  lenses  than 
that  used  by  Galileo.  Kepler  studied  Galileo's  in- 
strument, and  then  designed  one  consisting  of  two 
convex  lenses.  The  modern  telescope  follows  Kep- 
ler's arrangement,  but  Galileo's  adjustment  is  still 
suitable  where  only  low  magnifying  powers  are  needed, 
and  is  used  to-day  in  the  ordinary  field-  and  opera- 
glass. 

Galileo  knew  nothing  of  what  we  call  the  reflecting 
telescope.  He  found  that  by  using  a  convex-lens  as 
an  object-glass  he  could  bring  the  rays  of  light  from 
any  distant  object  to  a  focus,  and  it  did  not  apparently 
occur  to  him  that  he  could  achieve  the  same  end  by 
the  use  of  a  concave  mirror.  James  Gregory,  a  Scotch- 
man, designed  the  first  reflector  in  1663,  and  described 
it  in  a  book,  but  he  was  too  poor  to  construct  it.  Nine 
years  later  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  having  studied  Gregory's 
plans,  built  the  first  reflecting  telescope,  which  is  now 
to  be  seen  in  the  hall  of  the  Royal  Society  in  London. 
But  invention  has  gone  yet  farther  in  perfecting  these 
instruments  with  which  to  study  the  skies,  and  the 
great  telescopes  of  modern  times  have  in  most  in- 
stances discarded  Newton's  reflector  for  the  refracting 
instrument.  And  these  are  built  on  a  tremendous  scale. 


GALILEO  AND  THE  TELESCOPE  69 

The  Yerkes  telescope  at  Williams  Bay,  Wisconsin, 
has  a  refractor  of  forty  inches,  and  the  one  built  for 
the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900,  one  of  fifty  inches.  In 
numerous  other  details  they  have  changed,  and  yet 
each  is  chiefly  indebted  to  that  simple  spy-glass  of 
Galileo,  by  which  he  was  able  to  show  the  nobles 
and  senators  of  Venice  full-rigged  ships,  which  without 
it  were  barely  distant  specks  on  the  horizon.  Or, 
going  still  farther  back,  the  men  who  make  our  present 
telescopes  are  following  the  trail  that  was  first  blazed 
on  the  day  when  the  Dutch  apprentice  of  Middleburg 
chanced  to  pick  up  two  spectacle  lenses  and  look 
through  the  two  of  them  at  once. 

Galileo  made  many  great  discoveries  and  inventions ; 
there  was  hardly  a  field  of  science  that  he  did  not 
enter  and  explore ;  but  his  greatest  work  was  to  open 
a  new  world  to  men's  attention.  It  was  this  that 
brought  him  before  the  Inquisition  and  that  branded 
him  as  a  dangerous  heretic,  and  it  was  this  that  placed 
him  in  the  forefront  of  the  world's  discoverers.  Men 
might  say  that  the  earth  stood  still,  because  it  suited 
them  best  to  believe  so,  but  Galileo  gave  the  world  an 
instrument  by  which  it  could  study  the  matter  for  it- 
self, and  the  world  has  gone  on  using  that  instrument 
and  that  method  ever  since. 


IV 

WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE 

1736-1819 

IT  was  no  pressing  need  that  drove  John  Gutenberg 
to  the  invention  of  his  printing  press,  nor  was  it  neces- 
sity that  led  to  Galileo's  discovery  of  the  telescope,  but 
it  was  a  very  urgent  demand  that  led  to  the  building 
of  a  steam-engine  by  James  Watt  England  and  Scot- 
land found  that  men  and  women,  even  with  the  aid  of 
horses,  could  not  work  the  coal  mines  as  they  must  be 
worked  if  the  countries  were  to  be  kept  supplied  with 
fuel.  The  small  mines  were  used  up,  the  larger  ones 
must  be  deepened,  and  in  that  event  it  would  be  too 
long  and  arduous  a  task  for  men  and  women  to  raise 
the  coal  in  small  baskets,  or  for  horses  to  draw  it  out 
by  the  windlass.  A  machine  must  be  constructed  that 
would  do  the  work  more  quickly,  more  easily,  and  more 
cheaply. 

A  Frenchman  named  Denys  Papin  had  built  the  first 
steam-engine  with  a  piston.  He  had  seen  certain  ex- 
periments that  showed  him  how  much  strength  there 
was  in  compressed  air.  He  had  noticed  that  air 
pressure  could  lift  several  men  off  their  feet.  His 
problem  therefore  was  how  best  to  compress  the  air,  or, 
as  it  appeared  to  him,  how  to  secure  a  vacuum.  His 
experiments  proved  that  he  could  do  this  by  the  use  of 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  71 

steam.  He  took  a  simple  cylinder  and  fitted  a  piston 
into  it.  Water  was  put  in  the  cylinder  under  the 
piston,  a  fire  was  lighted  beneath  it,  and  as  the  water 
came  to  the  boiling  point  the  piston  was  forced  upward 
by  the  steam.  Then  the  fire  was  taken  away,  and  as 
the  steam  in  the  cylinder  condensed,  the  piston  was 
forced  down  by  the  air  pressure  above.  He  fastened 
the  upper  end  of  the  piston  to  a  rope,  which  passed 
over  two  pulleys.  If  a  weight  were  hung  to  the  other 
end  of  the  rope  it  would  be  raised  as  the  piston  was 
forced  down.  In  that  way  the  air  pressure  did  the 
work  of  lifting  the  weight,  and  the  necessary  vacuum 
was  obtained  by  forming  steam  and  then  condensing  it 
in  the  cylinder.  This  was  a  very  primitive  device,  re- 
quiring several  minutes  for  the  engine  to  make  one 
stroke,  but  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  practical  use  of 
steam  as  a  motive  power. 

Thomas  Newcomen,  an  English  blacksmith  by  trade, 
first  put  Papin's  idea  to  use.  Instead  of  the  rope  and 
pulleys  Newcomen  fastened  a  walking-beam  to  the  end 
of  the  piston,  and  attached  a  pump-rod  to  the  other 
end  of  the  walking-beam.  He  used  the  steam  in  the 
cylinder  only  to  balance  the  pressure  of  the  air  on  the 
piston,  and  let  the  pump-rod  descend  by  its  own 
weight.  As  the  steam  condensed  the  piston  fell,  and 
the  pump-rod  rose  again.  By  this  means  he  could 
pump  water  from  a  mine,  or  lift  coal.  His  first  engine 
was  able  to  lift  fifty  gallons  of  water  fifty  yards  at  each 
stroke,  and  could  make  twelve  strokes  a  minute.  At 
first  he  condensed  his  steam  by  throwing  cold  water  on 
the  outside  of  the  cylinder,  but  one  day  he  discovered 


72  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

that  the  engine  suddenly  increased  its  speed,  and  he 
found  that  a  hole  had  been  worn  in  the  cylinder,  and 
that  the  water  with  which  he  had  covered  the  top  of  the 
piston  was  entering  through  this  hole.  This  condensed 
the  steam  more  rapidly,  and  he  adopted  it  as  an  im- 
provement in  his  next  engine.  A  little  later  a  boy 
named  Humphrey  Potter,  who  had  charge  of  turning  the 
cocks  that  let  the  water  and  steam  into  the  cylinder, 
found  a  way  of  tying  strings  to  the  cocks  so  that  the 
engine  would  turn  them  itself,  and  so  originated  what 
came  to  be  known  as  valve-gear. 

Newcomen's  engine  was  a  great  help  to  the  coal 
mines  of  England  and  Scotland,  but  it  was  very  ex- 
pensive to  run,  a  large  engine  consuming  no  less  than 
twenty-eight  pounds  of  coal  per  hour  per  horse-power. 
Then  it  happened  that  in  1764  a  small  Newcomen  en- 
gine that  belonged  to  the  University  of  Glasgow  was 
given  to  James  Watt,  an  instrument-maker  at  the  uni- 
versity, to  be  repaired.  To  do  this  properly  he  made 
a  study  of  all  that  had  been  discovered  in  regard  to  en- 
gines, and  then  set  about  to  construct  one  for  himself. 

There  are  many  stories  told  of  the  boyhood  of  James 
Watt.  He  lived  at  Greenock  on  the  River  Clyde  in 
Scotland,  and  was  of  a  quiet,  almost  shy  disposition, 
and  delicate  in  health.  He  was  fond  of  drawing  and 
of  studying  mechanical  problems,  but  rarely  had  much 
to  say  about  his  studies.  The  story  goes  that  as  he 
sat  one  evening  at  the  tea-table  with  his  aunt,  Mrs. 
Muirhead,  she  said  reprovingly  to  him,  "  James  Watt, 
I  never  saw  such  an  idle  boy  :  take  a  book  or  employ 
yourself  usefully  ;  for  the  last  hour  you  haven't  spoken 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  73 

a  word,  but  taken  off  the  lid  of  that  kettle  and  put  it 
on  again,  holding  a  cup  or  a  silver  spoon  over  the 
steam,  watching  it  rise  from  the  spout,  and  catching 
the  drops  it  falls  into.  Aren't  you  ashamed  of  spend- 
ing your  time  in  this  way  ?  "  And  history  goes  on  to 
presume  that  as  the  boy  watched  the  bubbling  kettle 
he  was  studying  the  laws  of  steam  and  making  ready 
to  put  them  to  good  use  some  day. 

He  picked  out  the  trade  of  a  maker  of  mathematical 
instruments,  and  went  to  London  to  fit  himself  for  it. 
He  was  apprenticed  to  a  good  master  and  made  rapid 
progress,  but  the  climate  of  London  was  bad  for  his 
health,  and  as  soon  as  his  term  of  instruction  was  fin- 
ished he  went  back  to  Scotland.  There  he  found  it 
difficult  to  get  employment,  but  at  last  he  obtained 
permission  to  open  a  small  shop  in  the  grounds  of  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  and  to  call  himself  "  Mathe- 
matical-instrument-maker to  the  University." 

When  the  Newcomen  engine  was  given  to  Watt  to 
repair  he  studied  it  closely,  and  soon  reached  an  im- 
portant conclusion.  A  great  amount  of  heat  was  lost 
whenever  the  cold  water  was  let  into  the  cylinder  to 
condense  the  steam,  and  this  loss  vastly  increased  the 
expense  of  running  the  engine,  and  cut  down  its  power. 
He  saw  that  to  prevent  this  loss  the  cylinder  must  be 
kept  as  hot  as  the  steam  that  entered  it.  This  led  him 
to  study  the  nature  of  steam,  and  he  had  soon  made 
some  remarkable  discoveries  in  regard  to  it.  He  found 
that  water  had  a  high  capacity  for  storing  up  heat, 
without  a  corresponding  effect  on  the  thermometer. 
This  hidden  heat  became  known  as  latent  heat. 


74  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

It  was  of  course  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that 
heat  could  be  obtained  by  the  combustion  of  coal  or 
wood.  Watt  found  that  heat  lay  also  in  water,  to  be 
drawn  out  and  used  in  what  is  called  steam.  If  you 
change  the  temperature  of  water  you  find  that  it  exists 
in  three  different  states,  that  of  a  liquid,  or  water,  that 
of  a  solid,  or  ice,  and  that  of  a  gas,  or  steam.  If  water 
were  turned  into  steam,  and  two  pounds  of  this  steam 
passed  into  ten  pounds  of  water  at  the  freezing  point 
the  steam  would  become  liquid,  or  water,  again,  at 
212°  of  temperature,  but  at  the  same  time  the  ten 
pounds  of  freezing  water  into  which  the  steam  had 
been  passed  would  also  have  been  raised  to  212°  by 
the  process.  This  shows  that  the  latent  heat  of  the 
two  pounds  of  steam  was  sufficient  to  convert  the  ten 
pounds  of  freezing  water  into  boiling  water.  That  is 
the  latent  heat  which  is  set  free  to  work  when  the 
steam  coming  in  contact  with  the  cold  changes  the 
vapor  from  its  gaseous  to  a  liquid  state.  The  heat, 
however,  is  only  latent,  or  in  other  words  of  no  use, 
until  the  temperature  of  the  water  is  raised  to  212°, 
and  the  vapor  rises. 

Mr.  Lauder,  a  pupil  of  Lord  Kelvin,  writing  of  Watt's 
"  Discoveries  of  the  Properties  of  Steam,"  describes  his 
results  in  this  way :  "  Suppose  you  take  a  flask,  such 
as  olive  oil  is  often  sold  in,  and  fill  it  with  cold  water. 
Set  it  over  a  lighted  lamp,  put  a  thermometer  in  the 
water,  and  the  temperature  will  be  observed  to  rise 
steadily  till  it  reaches  212°,  where  it  remains,  the  water 
boils,  and  steam  is  produced  freely.  Now  draw  the 
thermometer  out  of  the  water,  but  leaving  it  still  in  the 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  75 

steam.  It  remains  steady  at  the  same  point — 212°. 
Now  it  requires  quite  a  long  time  and  a  large  amount 
of  heat  to  convert  all  the  water  into  steam.  As  the 
steam  goes  off  at  the  same  temperature  as  the  water, 
it  is  evident  a  quantity  of  heat  has  escaped  in  the 
steam,  of  which  the  thermometer  gives  us  no  account. 
This  is  latent  heat. 

"  Now,  if  you  blow  the  steam  into  cold  water  instead 
of  allowing  it  to  pass  into  the  air,  you  will  find  that  it 
heats  the  water  six  times  more  than  what  is  due  to  its 
indicated  temperature.  To  fix  your  idea :  suppose  you 
take  loo  Ibs.  of  water  at  60°,  and  blow  one  pound  of 
steam  into  it,  making  101  Ibs.,  its  temperature  will  now 
be  about  72°,  a  rise  of  12°.  Return  to  your  100  Ibs. 
of  water  at  60°  and  add  one  pound  of  water  at  212°  the 
same  temperature  as  the  steam  you  added,  and  the 
temperature  will  only  be  raised  about  2°.  The  one 
pound  of  steam  heats  six  times  more  than  the  one 
pound  of  water,  both  being  at  the  same  temperature. 
This  is  the  quantity  of  latent  heat,  which  means  simply 
hidden  heat,  in  steam. 

"  Proceeding  further  with  the  experiment,  if,  instead 
of  allowing  the  steam  to  blow  into  the  water,  you  con- 
fine it  until  it  gets  to  some  pressure,  then  blow  it  into 
the  water,  it  takes  the  same  weight  to  raise  the  tem- 
perature to  the  same  degree.  This  means  that  the 
total  heat  remains  practically  the  same,  no  matter  at 
what  pressure. 

"  This  is  James  Watt's  discovery,  and  it  led  him  to 
the  use  of  high-pressure  steam,  used  expansively." 

Newcomen,  in  making  his  steam-engine,  had  simply 


76  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

made  additions  to  Papin's  model.  Watt  had  already 
done  much  more,  for  in  trying  to  find  how  the  engine 
might  be  made  of  greater  service  he  had  discovered  at 
the  outset  the  principle  of  the  latent  heat  of  steam.  He 
knew  that  in  Newcomen's  engine  four-fifths  of  all  the 
steam  used  was  lost  in  heating  the  cold  cylinder,  and 
that  only  one-fifth  was  actually  used  in  moving  the 
piston.  It  was  easy  to  see  how  this  loss  occurred. 
The  cylinder  was  cooled  at  the  top  because  it  was  open 
to  the  air,  and  was  cooled  at  the  bottom  in  condensing 
the  steam  that  had  driven  the  piston  up  so  as  to  create 
a  vacuum  which  would  lower  the  piston  for  another 
stroke.  Watt  knew  that  what  he  wanted  was  a  plan 
by  which  the  cylinder  could  always  be  kept  as  hot  as 
the  steam  that  went  into  it.  How  was  he  to  obtain 
this  ?  He  solved  it  by  the  invention  of  the  "  separate 
condenser."  This  is  how  he  tells  of  his  discovery. 
"  I  had  gone  to  take  a  walk  on  a  fine  Sabbath  after- 
noon, early  in  1765.  I  had  entered  the  green  by  the 
gate  at  the  foot  of  Charlotte  Street  and  had  passed  the 
old  washing-house,  when  the  idea  came  into  my  mind 
that  as  steam  was  an  elastic  body  it  would  rush  into  a 
vacuum,  and  if  a  communication  were  made  between 
the  cylinder  and  an  exhausted  vessel  it  would  rush  into 
it,  and  might  be  there  condensed  without  cooling  the 
cylinder.  I  then  saw  that  I  must  get  rid  of  the  con- 
densed steam  and  injection- water  if  I  used  a  jet  as  in 
Newcomen's  engine.  Two  ways  of  doing  this  occurred 
to  me.  First,  the  water  might  be  run  off  by  a  descend- 
ing pipe,  if  an  orBet  could  be  got  at  the  depth  of  thirty- 
five  or  thirty-six  feet,  and  any  air  might  be  extracted 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  77 

by  a  small  pump.  The  second  was  to  make  the  pump 
large  enough  to  extract  both  water  and  air.  ...  I 
had  not  walked  farther  than  the  golf-house  when  the 
whole  thing  was  arranged  in  my  mind." 

This  was  the  discovery  that  gave  us  practically  the 
modern  steam-engine,  with  its  countless  uses  in  un- 
numbered fields.  Newcomen's  engine  was  limited  to 
the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  Watt's  could  use  the 
tremendous  force  of  steam  under  higher  and  higher 
pressure.  He  led  the  steam  out  of  the  cylinder  and 
condensed  it  in  a  separate  vessel,  thereby  leaving  the 
cylinder  hot.  He  closed  the  cylinder  top,  and  prevented 
the  loss  of  steam.  The  invention  may  seem  simple 
enough  as  we  study  it,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  the 
attainment  of  this  result  of  keeping  the  cylinder  as  hot 
as  the  steam  that  enters  it  that  has  given  us  our  steam- 
engine. 

The  morning  following  that  Sunday  afternoon  on 
which  the  idea  of  the  condenser  had  occurred  to  Watt 
he  borrowed  a  brass  syringe  from  a  college  friend,  and 
using  this  as  a  cylinder  and  a  tin  can  as  a  condenser 
tried  his  experiment.  The  scheme  worked,  albeit  in  a 
primitive  way,  and  Watt  saw  that  he  was  on  the  track 
of  an  engine  that  would  revolutionize  the  labor  of  men. 
But  he  saw  also  that  it  would  take  both  time  and 
money  to  bring  his  invention  to  its  most  efficient 
form. 

His  instrument-making  business  had  prospered,  he 
had  taken  in  a  partner,  and  the  firm  now  employed  six- 
teen workmen.  About  the  same  time  he  married,  and 
rented  a  house  outside  the  university  grounds.  Soon 


78  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

he  was  busily  at  work  building  a  working  model  of  his 
steam-engine. 

A  working  model  was  very  hard  to  make.  Watt  him- 
self was  a  skilful  mechanician,  but  the  men  who  helped 
him  were  not.  The  making  of  the  cylinder  and  the 
piston  gave  him  the  chief  trouble.  The  cylinder  would 
leak.  It  took  him  months  to  devise  the  tools  that 
would  enable  him  to  make  a  perfect-fitting  cylinder, 
and  when  he  had  accomplished  that  he  still  found  that 
in  one  way  or  another  a  certain  amount  of  steam  would 
escape.  Yet,  although  imperfect,  his  model  was  al- 
ready many  times  more  powerful  than  the  Newcomen 
engine  he  had  started  with. 

But  before  very  long  Watt  found  that  this  work  was 
leading  him  into  debt.  He  told  his  good  friend  Pro- 
fessor Black,  who  had  discovered  the  latent  heat  of 
steam  before  Watt  had,  that  he  needed  a  partner  to 
help  him  in  his  business  of  building  engines.  Black 
suggested  Dr.  Roebuck,  who  had  opened  the  well- 
known  Carron  Iron  Works  near  Glasgow.  The  two 
men  met,  and,  after  some  negotiations,  formed  a  part- 
nership. Roebuck  agreed  to  pay  Watt's  debts  to  the 
sum  of  a  thousand  pounds,  to  provide  the  money  for 
further  experiments,  and  to  obtain  a  patent  for  the 
steam-engine.  In  return  for  this  he  was  to  become  the 
owner  of  a  two-third  interest  in  the  invention. 

It  was  more  difficult  to  secure  a  patent  in  those  days 
than  in  later  times,  for  both  the  courts  and  the  public 
considered  that  the  right  to  make  use  of  any  new  inven- 
tion should  belong  to  the  whole  world,  and  not  alone 
to  one  man  or  to  a  few  men.  Watt's  models  had  to  b? 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  79 

very  carefully  made,  and  his  designs  very  accurately 
drawn  if  he  was  to  secure  any  real  protection,  and  the 
preparation  of  these  took  a  vast  amount  of  time.  But 
Roebuck  continued  to  encourage  him,  and  on  January 
5,  1769,  he  was  granted  his  first  patent,  the  very 
same  day  on  which  another  great  English  inventor, 
Arkwright,  obtained  a  patent  for  his  spinning-frame. 
This  first  patent  covered  Watt's  invention  of  the  con- 
denser, but  not  his  next  invention,  which  was  the 
double-acting  engine,  or  in  other  words,  a  method  by 
which  the  steam  should  do  work  on  the  downward  as 
well  as  on  the  upward  stroke. 

With  his  patent  secured  Watt  spent  six  months 
building  a  huge  new  engine,  which  he  had  ready  for  use 
in  September,  1 769.  In  spite  of  all  his  painstaking  it  was 
only  a  partial  success.  The  cylinder  had  been  badly 
cast,  the  pipe-condenser  did  not  work  properly,  and 
there  was  still  the  old  leakage  of  steam  at  the  piston. 
Men  began  to  doubt  whether  the  new  engine  could 
ever  be  made  to  accomplish  what  Watt  claimed  for  it, 
but  although  he  realized  the  difficulties  the  inventor 
would  not  allow  himself  to  doubt.  Unfortunately  his 
way  was  no  longer  clear.  Dr.  Roebuck  met  with  re- 
verses and  had  to  end  the  partnership  agreement,  and 
Watt  had  to  borrow  money  from  his  old  friend  Pro- 
fessor Black  to  secure  his  patent.  To  add  to  his  dis- 
tress his  wife,  who  had  been  his  best  counselor,  died. 

Dr.  Roebuck  had  owed  money  to  a  celebrated  mer- 
chant of  Birmingham  named  Matthew  Boulton.  Boul- 
ton  had  heard  a  great  deal  about  Watt's  engine,  and 
now  consented  to  take  Roebuck's  interest  in  Watt's  in- 


80  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

vention  in  payment  of  the  debt.  At  the  same  time  the 
firm  of  Boulton  and  Watt  was  formed,  and  in  May, 
1774,  Watt  shipped  his  trial  engine  south,  and  set  out 
himself  for  Birmingham. 

Boulton  was  a  business  genius,  and  Watt  now  found 
that  he  could  leave  financial  matters  entirely  to  his  care, 
and  busy  himself  solely  with  his  engine.  He  had 
better  workmen,  better  appliances,  and  better  material 
in  Birmingham  than  he  had  had  in  Glasgow,  and  the 
engine  was  soon  beginning  to  justify  his  hopes.  But 
the  original  patent  had  only  been  granted  for  fourteen 
years,  and  six  of  these  had  already  passed.  Boulton 
was  not  willing  to  put  money  into  the  building  of  a 
great  factory  until  he  was  sure  that  the  engines  would 
be  secured  to  the  firm.  Therefore  more  time  had  to  be 
spent  in  obtaining  an  extension  of  the  patent.  This 
was  finally  done,  and  Watt  was  granted  a  term  of 
twenty-four  years.  At  once  Boulton  set  to  work,  the 
first  engine  factory  rose,  and  hundreds  of  men  in  Eng- 
land turned  to  Birmingham  to  see  how  much  truth 
there  was  in  the  wonderful  stories  that  had  been  spread 
abroad  of  the  new  invention. 

Men  soon  learned  that  the  stories  were  true.  Or- 
ders began  to  flow  in,  and  Watt  had  his  hands  full  in 
traveling  about  the  country  superintending  the  erection 
of  his  steam-engines.  The  mines  of  Cornwall  had  be- 
come unworkable,  and  as  a  great  deal  depended  on  the 
success  of  the  engine  in  such  work,  he  traveled  to 
Cornwall  to  make  sure  that  there  should  be  no  faults. 
The  miners,  the  engineers,  and  the  owners  had  gath- 
ered to  see  the  new  engine.  It  stood  the  test  splendidly, 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  81 

making  eleven  eight-foot  strokes  per  minute,  which 
broke  the  record.  After  that  the  other  mines  of  Great 
Britain  discarded  the  old  expensive  Newcomen  engine, 
and  sent  in  orders  for  Watt's.  The  firm  prospered, 
and  the  inventor  began  to  feel  some  of  the  material 
comforts  of  success.  He  had  married  a  second  time, 
and  made  a  home  for  his  wife  and  children  in  Birming- 
ham. Now,  when  he  could  spare  the  time  from  super- 
intending the  workmen  and  traveling  over  the  country, 
he  gave  his  thoughts  to  further  inventive  schemes. 

Watt  had  not  only  invented  the  condenser  and  the 
double-acting  engine,  he  had  produced  an  indicator  for 
measuring  the  pressure  of  steam  in  the  cylinder,  and 
also  what  was  called  the  fly-ball  governor,  which  took 
the  place  of  the  throttle-valve  he  had  first  used  to  regu- 
late the  speed  of  his  engines.  These  improvements 
had  so  increased  the  uses  of  the  engine  that  scores  of 
rival  inventors  were  abroad,  and  therefore  he  decided  to 
secure  a  second  patent.  This  he  did  in  1781,  the  pat- 
ent being  issued  "  for  certain  new  methods  of  produc- 
ing a  continued  rotative  motion  around  an  axis  or  cen- 
tre, and  thereby  to  give  motion  to  the  wheels  of  mills 
or  other  machines."  The  next  year  he  secured  still 
another  patent,  and  now  he  had  so  perfected  his  double- 
acting  engine  that  it  had  a  regular  and  easily  controlled 
motion,  in  consequence  of  which,  as  he  said  in  his  spec- 
ifications, "  in  most  of  our  great  manufactories  these 
engines  now  supply  the  place  of  water,  wind  and  horse 
mills,  and  instead  of  carrying  the  work  to  the  power, 
the  prime  agent  is  placed  wherever  it  is  most  conve- 
nient to  the  manufacturer."  This  meant  that  the  steam- 


82  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

engine  had  now  reached  the  point  where  it  could  be 
made  to  serve  for  almost  any  purpose  and  placed  in 
almost  any  position  that  might  be  required. 

There  was  one  further  step  for  Watt  to  take  in  the 
development  of  his  invention.  He  wished  a  more 
powerful  engine  than  his  double-acting  one,  and  so  he 
produced  the  "compound"  engine.  This  was  really 
two  engines,  the  cylinders  and  condensers  of  which 
were  so  connected  that  the  steam  which  had  been  used 
to  press  on  the  piston  of  the  first  could  then  be  used  to 
act  expansively  upon  the  piston  of  the  second,  and  in 
this  way  the  second  engine  be  made  to  work  either  al- 
ternately or  simultaneously  with  the  first.  And  this 
compound  engine  is  practically  the  very  engine  that 
we  have  to-day.  Improvements  have  been  made,  but 
they  have  been  made  in  details.  The  piston-rings  in- 
vented by  Cartwright  have  prevented  the  escape  of 
steam,  and  so  permitted  the  use  of  a  higher  pressure 
than  Watt  could  achieve,  and  the  cross-head  invented 
by  Haswell  has  provided  the  piston  with  a  better  bed 
on  which  to  rest  and  freed  it  from  a  certain  friction. 

The  firm  of  Boulton  and  Watt  had  a  successful  ca- 
reer, and  in  time  the  sons  of  the  two  partners  took  the 
latters'  places.  Watt  had  occasion  to  protect  his  pat- 
ents by  a  suit  at  law,  but  he  was  victorious  in  this,  and 
by  the  time  the  patent  rights  had  expired  the  firm  had 
built  up  such  a  large  business  that  it  was  safe  from  ri- 
vals. Confident  of  his  son's  ability  to  carry  on  the 
business  Watt  at  length  retired,  to  busy  himself  in 
studying  other  inventions,  to  cultivate  his  garden,  and 
to  revisit  familiar  scenes  in  his  beloved  Scotland. 


WATT  AND  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  83 

The  steam-engine  had  come  to  take  its  place  in  the 
great  onward  march  of  progress.  Men  were  already 
at  work  planning  to  make  it  move  cars  across  the  land 
and  ships  upon  the  sea.  It  was  to  revolutionize  the 
manufacture  of  almost  everything;  what  men  and 
women  had  done  before  by  hand  it  was  now  to  do,  and, 
devised  at  first  because  of  the  great  need  of  a  new  way 
to  work  the  coal  mines,  it  was  to  provide  a  motive 
power  to  accomplish  all  kinds  of  labor. 

Such  is  the  story  of  how  James  Watt  took  New- 
comen's  simple  piston  and  cylinder  and  so  harnessed 
steam  that  he  could  make  it  do  the  work  he  wanted. 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING- 
JENNY 
1732-1792 

ALL  the  great  English  inventors  have  sprung  from 
families  of  small  means,  and  have  had  to  work  for  their 
living.  Richard  Ark wri grit,  born  at  Preston,  in  Lanca- 
shire, December  23,  1732,  was  no  exception  to  this  rule. 
He  was  the  youngest  of  thirteen  children,  and  his  parents 
were  as  poor  as  the  proverbial  church  mice.  He  had 
no  real  education,  only  such  as  he  could  pick  up  by 
chance,  but  he  made  the  most  of  such  chances  as  came 
his  way.  He  was  apprenticed  to  a  barber  at  Bolton, 
and  later  took  up  that  business  for  himself.  It  was  an 
occupation  in  which  he  would  be  apt  to  glean  much 
gossip  and  many  stray  scraps  of  information,  but  little 
that  would  tend  to  broaden  his  mind.  Perhaps  he  re- 
alized this  for  himself,  and  concluded  that  the  hair- 
dressing  line  was  not  to  be  his  destiny,  for  when  he 
was  in  the  neighborhood  of  twenty-eight  years  of  age 
he  retired  from  his  barber-shop,  and  became  a  travel- 
ing dealer  in  hair  and  dyes.  This  would  at  least  al- 
low him  to  see  something  more  of  the  world. 

His  prospects  at  this  new  trade  were  good.  He  had 
come  upon  a  new  method  of  dyeing  hair  and  preparing 
it  to  be  made  into  wigs.  Wigs  were  the  fashion,  and 
Arkwright  had  an  excellent  process,  and  was  an  ener- 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY     85 

getic  and  resourceful  dealer.  He  saw  something  of  the 
country  world  of  England,  the  men  and  women  in  it, 
what  they  wanted,  and  what  they  needed.  Doubtless 
his  inventive  mind  was  already  revolving  improve- 
ments for  them.  The  dealer  in  dyes  and  wigs  was  a 
shrewd  and  canny  man.  Carlyle  had  this  to  say  con- 
cerning him  and  his  progress  :  "  Nevertheless,  in  strop- 
ping of  razors,  in  shaving  of  dirty  beards,  and  the  con- 
tradictions and  confusions  attendant  thereon,  the  man 
had  notions  in  that  rough  head  of  his !  Spindles,  shut- 
tles, wheels,  and  contrivances,  plying  ideally  within  the 
same ;  rather  hopeless-looking,  which,  however,  he  did 
at  last  bring  to  bear.  Not  without  difficulty." 

There  is  always  a  strain  of  romance,  or  at  least  ad- 
venture, in  the  life  of  the  itinerant  pedlar,  something  of 
the  free-footedness  of  the  gypsy,  and  something  of  the 
acumen  of  those  Eastern  traders  who  traveled  in  cara- 
vans from  the  Orient.  But  doubtless  we  see  the  charm 
more  clearly  than  the  traveler  himself.  It  may  have 
been,  and  most  likely  was,  a  workaday  job  for  Richard 
Arkwright.  But  consider  the  romance  that  underlay 
it !  This  country  vendor  of  hair  was  to  become  one  of 
the  world's  great  inventors,  and  to  kneel  before  his 
sovereign  for  the  accolade  that  was  to  make  him  knight. 
Figaro  of  Seville,  famed  as  he  was,  was  none  superior 
to  the  Lancashire  barber. 

He  traveled  much  through  South  Lancashire  and 
Cheshire,  and  there  he  came  in  daily  contact  with  the 
cotton-spinners.  A  weaver  of  great  ingenuity  and  tire- 
less purpose,  James  Hargreaves,  had  invented  what  was 
known  as  a  spinning-jenny,  an  arrangement  by  which 


86  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

many  spindles,  fastened  in  a  wooden  frame,  would 
work  together  by  the  turning  of  a  fly-wheel.  This 
machine  could  do  the  work  of  many  spinners,  and  in  a 
much  shorter  time.  The  rovings  of  cotton  went  under 
a  bar-clasp  that  took  the  place  of  the  spinner's  finger 
and  thumb.  This  bar-clasp  could  be  moved  backward 
and  forward  on  a  rod  as  the  spinner's  hand  would  do 
when  stretching  the  thread  and  winding  it  on.  It  had 
a  precision  of  action  that  resulted  in  a  much  greater 
regularity  in  the  spun  thread  than  by  the  earlier  process. 
It  was  a  very  ingenious  device,  and  Hargreaves  de- 
served the  greatest  credit  for  the  skill  with  which  he 
solved  the  problem 

But  the  spinners  did  not  take  kindly  to  this  improve- 
ment. When  they  discovered  that  Hargreaves  could 
do  more  spinning  with  less  work  with  his  machine,  and 
could  supply  his  own  loom  with  all  the  woof  that  was 
needed  instead  of  keeping  three  or  four  spinners  em- 
ployed, they  grew  highly  indignant.  They  did  not 
realize  that  the  demand  for  cotton  cloth  was  far  greater 
than  the  supply,  and  that  they  could  all  be  profitably 
employed  operating  the  spinning-jenny.  That  panic 
which  has  so  often  come  over  people  when  they  learn 
of  a  new  device  entering  their  field  of  action  struck  the 
cotton-spinners,  and  Hargreaves  was  regarded  as  a  foe 
rather  than  a  friend.  Hargreaves  was  driven  from 
Lancashire  to  Nottingham,  and  many  of  his  larger 
jennies  were  broken  by  mobs.  A  few  of  the  smaller 
machines  were  saved,  but  the  people's  mind  was  very 
evident. 

Hargreaves'     improvement     on     the    old-fashioned 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY     87 

spinning-wheel  dates  from  1767,  though  he  himself,  it 
is  said,  had  first  used  such  a  machine  in  1764.  Two 
men,  Wyatt  and  Paul,  of  Birmingham,  had  earlier  built 
a  machine  to  spin  stronger  yarn  than  that  usually  used, 
but  their  machine  had  shown  many  defects,  and  they 
had  abandoned  its  use.  Arkwright  knew  of  Hargreaves' 
jenny,  but  not  of  the  other  machine,  and  as  he  came 
upon  none  in  use  in  his  travels  he  cannot  be  held 
to  have  been  under  any  obligations  to  this  earlier 
device. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton  goods  was  in  a  primitive 
state  in  England.  Pure  cotton  fabrics  could  not  be 
made,  and  the  fustians  that  were  produced  had  a  warp 
of  linen  yarn  in  them,  due  to  the  fact  that  no  way  was 
known  by  which  cotton  yarn  of  sufficient  strength  could 
be  spun.  Arkwright  soon  learned  these  difficulties  that 
arose  from  the  absence  of  cotton  warp  and  the  de- 
ficiency of  cotton  weft,  and  his  alert  mind  commenced 
to  wonder  whether  he  could  not  so  improve  on 
Hargreaves'  jenny  as  to  overcome  these  difficulties. 
He  was  not  a  skilled  mechanic  himself,  and  so,  when  he 
decided  to  take  up  the  subject,  he  employed  a  clock- 
maker,  named  Kay,  to  help  him.  Realizing  the  hos- 
tility to  any  improvement  on  the  part  of  the  cotton- 
spinners,  he  gave  out  that  he  was  engaged  in  building 
a  machine  to  solve  the  world-old  problem  of  perpetual 
motion. 

Under  this  cloak  he  worked,  and  soon  found  that  his 
new  occupation  was  vastly  more  interesting  than  that 
of  dealer  in  wigs  had  been.  He  was  a  shrewd  man,  and 
therefore,  when  he  withdrew  from  that  trade  in  1767,  it 


88  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

is  probable  that  he  foresaw  that  he  was  on  the  track  of 
something  better.  His  idea  was  that  cotton  could  be 
spun  by  rollers,  and  he  said  that  this  thought  occurred 
to  him  as  he  happened  to  watch  a  red-hot  iron  bar 
lengthened  out  by  passing  between  two  rollers.  But 
the  iron  would  necessarily  have  to  be  drawn  out  in  such 
a  process,  while  the  cotton  wool  could  be  indefinitely 
packed  together.  It  would  have  to  be  taken  hold  of, 
and  forcibly  stretched  as  it  passed  through  the  pair  of 
rollers,  if  it  were  to  be  drawn  out,  and  not  merely 
compressed.  His  solution  of  this  problem  was  a 
machine  that  had  two  pairs  of  rollers,  which  were  called 
drawing-rollers,  the  first  pair  of  which  revolved  slowly 
in  contact  with  each  other,  while  the  second  pair 
revolved  more  rapidly  in  a  similar  way.  One  roller  of 
each  pair  was  covered  with  leather,  and  the  other  was 
fluted  lengthwise.  The  two  were  pressed  together  by 
means  of  weights.  In  this  manner  the  adhesion  of  the 
cotton  wool  was  safely  secured,  and  there  was  no 
chance  of  the  rollers  slipping  around  without  drawing 
it  in.  The  cotton  passed  through  the  two  pairs  of 
rollers,  and  its  extension  depended  entirely  on  the 
difference  in  the  velocity  of  the  revolutions  of  the  two 
pairs.  When  the  proper  fineness  had  been  obtained  in 
this  way,  the  cotton,  as  it  passed  from  the  second  pair 
of  rollers,  was  twisted  into  a  firm  strong  thread  by 
spindles  attached  to  the  frame. 

Arkwright  realized  that  he  must  have  assistance  in 
order  to  put  his  machines  on  the  market.  He  applied 
to  a  Mr.  Atherton,  and  the  latter,  although  he  con- 
sidered the  venture  a  hazardous  one,  sent  him  two  work- 


SIR  RICHARD  ARKWRIGHT 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY     89 

men  to  help  in  building  his  first  machine.  When  this 
was  finished  Arkwright  went  with  it  to  Preston,  and 
there  set  up  his  spinning-frame  and  began  to  use  it  in  a 
room  of  the  house  that  belonged  to  the  Free  Grammar 
School.  His  experiments  convinced  him  of  its  success. 
Then  he  thought  how  he  could  best  introduce  his 
machine  with  least  risk  of  rousing  the  popular  fury. 
John  Smalley,  a  liquor  merchant  and  painter,  had 
helped  him  build  his  machine,  and  after  consultation, 
the  two  men  decided  to  take  the  spinning-jenny  to 
Nottingham,  which  lay  in  the  heart  of  the  frame-work 
stocking  trade. 

Ark wright's  great  opportunity  lay  in  the  fact  that  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  hosiery  had  hitherto  had  to  be 
carried  on  on  a  limited  scale,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  yarn  that  was  sufficiently  strong  for  the 
stocking-frames  that  were  then  used.  At  first  he  and 
John  Smalley  were  associated  with  the  Messrs.  Wright, 
Nottingham  bankers,  but  these  bankers,  figuring  on  the 
experience  that  had  befallen  the  inventors  of  other 
spinning  machines,  soon  withdrew  their  aid.  But 
Arkwright  was  more  fortunate  in  his  next  step. 
Samuel  Need,  a  Nottingham  manufacturer  of  stockings, 
and  his  partner,  Jedediah  Strutt,  of  Derby,  who  had 
himself  invented  a  device  for  making  ribbed  stockings, 
became  interested  in  his  machine,  tested  it  carefully,  and 
with  the  experience  they  had  already  gained  as  practical 
manufacturers,  decided  in  its  favor.  It  was  their  ap- 
proval that  started  Arkwright  on  the  road  to  fortune. 

Arkwright  took  out  his  first  patent  in  1 769,  the  same 
year  that  Watt  patented  his  steam-engine  with  a 


90  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

separate  condenser.  A  little  later,  with  his  partners 
Need  and  Strutt,  he  built  a  very  complete  factory  at 
Cromford,  on  the  Derwent  River.  He  had  already 
shown  his  power  of  originating  and  perfecting  a  work- 
ing machine,  now  he  showed  an  additional  ability  for 
organizing  a  great  manufactory,  and  improving  and 
adding  new  devices  to  his  original  model.  This  was 
the  test  of  his  strength,  and  perhaps  the  most  wonder- 
ful part  of  his  character.  Many  men  have  come  upon 
new  ideas,  and  many  have  sent  them  forth  to  improve 
the  world's  work,  but  only  a  few  have  developed  them, 
day  in  and  day  out,  until  they  stand  forth  as  a  finished 
achievement.  That  is  the  gauge,  the  test  that  has 
proved  the  inventor.  Not  Watt's  first  innovations  on 
the  stationary  steam-engine,  nor  Stephenson's  building 
of  his  original  locomotive,  nor  Arkwright's  discovery 
that  rollers  could  be  used  to  draw  the  cotton,  but  the 
years  of  trial  and  improvement  Watt  spent  at  Birming- 
ham, and  Stephenson  in  his  shops  at  Killingworth,  and 
Arkwright  in  his  factory  at  Cromford,  have  made  the 
three  men  famous  in  history.  They  were  the  years  of 
patience  and  perseverance,  which  must  come  in  the 
life  of  every  great  inventor  to  test  his  strength. 

The  country  people  about  Cromford  came  to  see 
Arkwright's  machines,  and  wonder  at  them,  and  some- 
times to  buy  a  dozen  pairs  of  stockings  that  had  been 
made  of  Arkwright's  yarn.  But  the  big  Manchester 
manufacturers  refused  to  trade  with  him.  The  fine 
water-twist  that  was  being  spun  on  his  spinning-frames 
was  perfectly  adapted  to  be  used  as  warp,  and  would 
have  supplied  the  demand  for  genuine  cotton  goods, 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY     91 

which  otherwise  had  to  be  imported  from  India.  But, 
though  they  needed  his  yarn,  the  manufacturers  would 
not  buy  it  from  him,  and  he  was  forced  to  find  some 
way  of  using  his  large  output  himself.  First  he  used  it 
to  manufacture  stockings,  and  then,  in  1773,  to  make, 
for  the  first  time  in  England,  fabrics  entirely  of  cotton. 
This  was  the  turning  point  in  England's  trade  in  cotton 
goods.  Heretofore  she  had  not  been  able  to  meet  the 
demands  of  her  own  people,  now  she  was  to  commence 
a  campaign  that  was  ultimately  to  send  her  cloth  to  the 
farthest  ends  of  the  earth. 

His  powers  of  resistance  were  to  be  still  further 
tested.  An  act  was  passed,  based  on  the  assumption 
that  the  English  spinners  could  never  compete  with  the 
fine  Indian  handiwork,  that  a  duty  of  sixpence  a  yard 
should  be  levied  on  all  calicoes,  which  were  a  variety 
of  cotton  goods  originally  imported  from  Calicut,  in 
India.  In  addition,  the  sale  of  printed  calicoes  was  for- 
bidden. The  customs  officers  immediately  began  to 
levy  the  duty  on  the  products  of  Arkwright's  mills, 
claiming  that  the  goods  were  in  reality  calicoes,  al- 
though they  were  made  in  England.  It  followed  that 
merchants  who  had  ordered  goods  from  the  Cromford 
Mill  cancelled  their  orders,  rather  than  pay  the  duty, 
and  again  Arkwright  found  his  cottons  piling  up  on 
his  hands. 

The  act  was  too  unfair  to  stand,  and  after  a  time  was 
repealed.  Cotton  and  all  mixed  fabrics  were  taxed 
threepence  per  yard,  and  the  prohibition  on  printed 
cotton  goods  was  withdrawn.  The  opposition  of  rival 
manufacturers  could  not  in  the  nature  of  things  long  re- 


92  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

tard  what  was  to  become  one  of  the  nation's  main  in- 
dustries. 

He  took  out  his  second  patent  in  1775,  and  it  em- 
braced almost  the  entire  field  of  cloth  manufacture.  It 
contained  innumerable  devices  that  he  had  worked  out 
during  the  years  he  had  been  experimenting  at  his 
factory.  It;  covered  "  carding,  drawing,  and  roving 
machines  for  use  in  preparing  silk,  cotton,  flax,  and 
wool  for  spinning."  The  man  who  had  been  a  vendor 
of  wigs  had  now  revolutionized  the  whole  spinning 
world.  He  had  taught  men  and  women  to  work  at  his 
machines,  instead  of  in  the  old  way  of  individual  hand 
labor,  he  had  organized  a  great  business,  and  was  show- 
ing the  world  that  more  could  be  accomplished  by  the 
division  of  labor  and  its  control  by  one  mind  than  could 
ever  have  resulted  from  individual  initiative.  In  this 
way  he  was  taking  a  most  vital  part  in  the  progress  of 
those  new  economic  ideas  that  were  dawning  into 
consciousness  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. 

It  is  so  easy  to  see  the  successful  result,  so  difficult  to 
appreciate  the  trials  that  have  been  undergone.  We 
look  at  the  great  picture  and  we  admire  the  genius  of  the 
artist,  but  how  rarely  we  realize  the  no  less  wonderful 
patience,  the  no  less  wonderful  struggle  that  underlies 
what  we  see.  The  creator  has  not  wrought  easily,  that 
is  certain ;  and  his  greatness  consists  in  what  he  has 
overcome. 

Arkwright  was  ill  with  asthma  during  many  of  the 
years  when  he  was  fighting  for  his  fortune,  and  time 
and  again  it  seemed  as  if  his  strength  must  fail  before 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY    93 

the  task  he  had  undertaken.  But  he  was  a  great 
fighter,  and  so  he  won  through.  His  workmen  were 
offered  bribes  to  leave  his  service,  and  teach  his  methods 
to  rivals,  his  patents  were  infringed,  right  and  left  there 
was  warfare,  and  he  was  fighting  a  score  of  enemies 
single-handed. 

In  1781  he  had  to  bring  suit  against  Colonel  Mor- 
daunt,  and  eight  other  manufacturers,  for  infringing  his 
patent.  The  influence  of  all  the  Lancashire  cotton- 
spinners  was  aligned  against  his  claims.  They  could 
not  deny  the  fact  that  he  had  invented  the  spinning- 
jenny,  but  they  said  that  the  specifications  of  his  patent 
were  not  sufficiently  clear.  The  court  upheld  this  con- 
tention, and  declared  the  patent  invalid.  Arkwright 
withdrew  the  other  suits  he  had  started,  and  wrote  and 
published  his  "  Case,"  in  order  to  set  forth  to  the  world 
the  truth  of  his  claims. 

In  1785  he  brought  his  case  again  into  court,  and 
this  time  Lord  Loughborough  ruled  that  his  patent 
was  valid.  On  account  of  this  conflict  of  decisions  the 
matter  was  referred  to  the  Court  of  King's  Bench. 
Here  a  Lancashire  man  named  Highs,  who  had  con- 
structed a  double  jenny  to  work  fifty-six  spindles  in 
1770,  was  declared  by  Arkwright's  opponents  to  be  the 
real  inventor.  It  was  said  that  Arkwright  had  stolen 
this  man's  ideas.  On  such  evidence  Arkwright's 
claims  were  denied,  and  his  patent  overruled.  This 
was  the  species  of  constant  warfare  with  which  he  had 
to  occupy  himself. 

Manchester  had  fought  against  the  spinning-frame 
for  years,  but  it  was  to  receive  the  chief  fruits  of  its 


94  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

success.  Arkwright  built  a  mill  there  in  1780,  and 
it  prospered  exceedingly,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he 
no  longer  had  the  protection  of  his  patents.  He  was 
such  a  good  business  man,  such  a  splendid  organizer, 
that  he  could  overcome  his  enemies  without  that  help, 
and  in  time  he  built  up  a  fortune. 

When  he  had  started  his  first  mill  at  Nottingham 
Arkwright  had  been  obliged  to  use  horse-power,  and 
it  was  owing  to  the  expense  of  such  a  system  that 
he  had  soon  moved  to  Cromford,  where  he  could  ob- 
tain water-power  from  the  Derwent  River.  It  was  this 
that  gave  his  yarn  the  name  of  water-twist.  But  in 
his  Manchester  Mill  he  made  use  of  a  hydraulic  wheel, 
supplied  with  water  by  a  single-stroke  atmospheric 
steam-engine.  Later  Boulton  and  Watt's  engines  were 
installed,  and  with  the  most  profitable  results.  As  a 
result  of  these  improvements  the  imports  of  cotton 
wool,  which  had  averaged  less  than  5,000,000  pounds 
a  year  in  the  five  years  from  1771  to  1775,  rose  to  an 
average  of  more  than  25,000,000  pounds  in  the  five 
years  ending  with  1790.  England  began  to  export 
cotton  goods  in  1781,  which  was  sufficient  evidence 
that  the  manufacture  of  such  goods  was  proceeding 
more  rapidly  than  the  home  demand  for  them.  This 
was  due  largely  to  Arkwright's  invention,  to  his  build- 
ing up  of  factories  on  new  methods,  and  to  the  great 
help  furnished  to  all  machinery  by  the  steam-engines 
of  James  Watt. 

This  is  the  romance  of  the  dealer  in  wigs  and  dyes. 
He  had  won  fame  and  fortune,  and  a  powerful  posi- 
tion in  his  country.  In  1786  he  was  appointed  High 


ARKWRIGHT  AND  THE  SPINNING-JENNY    95 

Sheriff  in  Derbyshire,  and  the  same  year  was  knighted 
by  George  III.     He  died  at  Cromford  in  1792. 

His  personality  was  strong,  aggressive,  dominating. 
Nothing  could  turn  him  from  his  course  when  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  in  regard  to  it.  He  was  determined 
to  make  a  fortune  out  of  cotton-spinning,  and  he  did, 
in  spite  of  the  loss  of  his  patents,  and  the  rivals  who 
were  always  pursuing  him.  He  stands  high  as  in- 
ventor, and  quite  as  high  as  one  of  the  makers  of  mod- 
ern commercial  England. 


VI 

WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN 

1765-1825 

COTTON-GROWING  has  been  for  a  long  time  the 
main  industry  of  the  Southern  United  States,  and 
the  exporting  of  cotton  by  that  part  of  the  country 
has  largely  fed  the  mills  of  the  world.  Yet  in  1784 
the  customs  officers  at  Liverpool  seized  eight  bags 
of  cotton  arriving  on  an  American  vessel,  claiming 
that  so  much  of  the  raw  material  could  not  have  been 
produced  in  the  thirteen  states.  In  1793  the  total 
export  of  cotton  from  the  United  States  was  less  than 
ten  thousand  bales,  but  by  1860  the  export  was  four 
million  bales.  The  chief  reason  for  this  marvelous 
advance  was  the  cotton-gin,  for  which  Eli  Whitney 
applied  for  a  patent  in  1793. 

Wherever  cotton  grew  in  the  South  there  the  cotton- 
gin  was  to  be  found.  It  brought  prosperity  and  ease 
and  comfort,  it  allowed  the  small  as  well  as  the  large 
owner  to  have  his  share  of  the  profits  of  the  markets 
of  the  world.  It  gave  the  cotton  country  its  living, 
and  yet  Whitney  struggled  for  years  to  win  the 
slightest  recognition  of  his  claims.  He  wrote  to 
Robert  Fulton,  "  In  one  instance  I  had  great  diffi- 
culty in  proving  that  the  machine  had  been  used  in 
Georgia,  although  at  the  same  moment  there  were 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN          97 

three  separate  sets  of  this  machinery  in  motion  within 
fifty  yards  of  the  building  in  which  the  court  sat,  and 
all  so  near  that  the  rattling  of  the  wheels  was  dis- 
tinctly heard  on  the  steps  of  the  court-house." 

He  came  to  the  South  from  New  England,  having 
been  born  in  Westborough,  Worcester  County,  Massa- 
chusetts, December  8,  1765,  educated  at  Yale  College, 
and  going  to  Georgia  as  teacher  in  a  private  family. 
General  Greene,  of  Savannah,  took  a  great  interest 
in  him,  and  taught  him  law.  Whitney  had  been 
a  good  student,  had  an  attractive  personality,  and 
had  already  shown  a  natural  knack  for  mechanics. 
While  he  was  teaching  at  the  Greenes'  home  he  no- 
ticed that  the  embroidery  frame  that  Mrs.  Greene  used 
tore  the  fine  threads  of  her  work.  He  asked  her  to 
let  him  study  it,  and  shortly  had  made  a  frame  on  an 
entirely  different  plan  that  would  do  the  same  work 
without  injuring  the  threads.  His  hostess  was  de- 
lighted with  it,  and  spread  the  word  of  her  young 
teacher's  ingenuity  through  the  neighborhood. 

As  in  all  Southern  mansions  hospitality  was  rife  at 
the  Greenes',  and  it  happened  that  one  evening  a  num- 
ber of  gentlemen  were  gathered  there  who  had  fought 
under  the  General  in  the  Revolution.  The  subject  of 
the  growing  of  cotton  came  under  discussion,  and 
some  one  spoke  of  the  unfortunate  fact  that  no  method 
had  been  found  for  cleaning  the  cotton  staple  of  the 
green  seed.  If  that  could  be  done  cotton  could  be 
grown  with  profit  on  all  the  land  that  was  unsuited 
for  rice.  To  separate  a  single  pound  of  the  clean 
staple  from  the  green  seed  took  a  whole  day's  work 


98  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

for  a  woman.  There  was  little  profit  in  trying  to  grow 
much  cotton  at  such  a  rate,  and  most  of  the  cotton 
picking  was  done  by  the  negroes  in  the  evenings, 
when  the  harder  labor  of  the  fields  was  finished.  Then 
Mrs.  Greene  pointed  to  Eli  Whitney  with  a  smile. 
"  There,  gentlemen,"  said  she,  "  apply  to  my  friend 
Mr.  Whitney  for  your  device.  He  can  make  any- 
thing." The  guests  looked  at  the  young  man,  but 
he  hastened  to  disclaim  any  such  abilities,  and  said 
that  he  had  never  even  seen  cotton-seed. 

But  in  spite  of  his  disclaimer  he  began  to  consider 
whether  he  could  make  a  machine  that  would  help  to 
separate  the  seed  from  the  cotton.  He  went  to  see  a 
neighbor,  Phineas  Miller,  and  talked  over  his  plans  with 
him.  Miller  became  interested,  and  gave  him  a  room 
in  his  house  where  he  might  carry  on  his  experiments. 
He  had  to  use  very  primitive  implements,  making  his 
own  tools  and  drawing  his  own  wire.  He  worked 
quietly,  only  Mr.  Miller  and  Mrs.  Greene  knowing  what 
he  was  doing. 

Whitney  worked  on  his  machine  all  the  winter  of 
1793,  and  by  spring  it  was  far  enough  completed  to 
assure  him  of  success.  Mr.  Miller,  who  was  a  lawyer 
with  a  taste  for  mechanics,  and  who  was,  again  like 
Eli  Whitney,  a  New  Englander  and  graduate  of  Yale, 
married  Mrs.  Greene  after  the  General's  death.  It  was 
he  who  actually  made  Whitney's  machine  a  business 
possibility  by  proposing  that  he  should  become  a 
partner  with  the  inventor,  and  bear  all  the  expenses  of 
manufacturing  it  until  they  should  secure  their  patent. 
They  drew  up  a  legal  agreement  to  this  effect,  dated 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN          99 

May  27,  1793,  and  stipulating  that  all  the  profits  should 
be  equally  divided  between  them. 

There  followed  very  soon  the  first  dramatic  scenes  in 
the  long  battle  between  the  owners  of  the  cotton-gin 
and  the  public.  The  Southern  people  knew  how  in- 
valuable such  an  invention  would  be  to  them ;  it  meant 
food  and  shelter  and  better  living  all  along  the  line ;  it 
would  increase  the  value  of  their  property  a  hundred- 
fold. So  as  soon  as  it  became  bruited  abroad  that  Eli 
Whitney  had  such  a  machine  in  his  workroom  that 
spot  became  the  Mecca  for  the  countryside.  Crowds 
came  to  beg  for  a  look  at  the  wonderful  machine,  and 
hung  about  the  house  and  plotted  to  get  in.  But 
Whitney  and  Miller  were  afraid  to  let  people  see  the 
invention  until  they  had  made  sure  of  their  patents  on 
it,  and  so  they  refused  to  let  the  crowds  have  a  look  at 
it.  Then  the  more  reckless  of  the  crowds  threw  all 
sense  of  fairness  to  the  winds,  and  broke  into  Mr. 
Miller's  house,  seized  the  machine,  and  carried  it  off 
with  them.  Soon  it  was  publicly  displayed,  and  before 
Whitney  could  finish  his  model  for  the  Patent  Office  a 
dozen  machines,  similar  to  his,  were  in  use  in  the  cot- 
ton fields. 

Whitney's  cotton-gin  was  made  of  two  cylinders  of 
different  diameters,  mounted  in  a  strong  wooden  frame. 
One  cylinder  had  a  number  of  small  circular  saws  that 
were  fitted  into  grooves  cut  into  the  cylinder.  The 
other  cylinder  was  covered  with  brushes,  and  so  placed 
that  the  tips  of  the  bristles  of  these  brushes  touched  the 
saw-teeth.  The  raw  cotton  was  put  in  a  hopper,  where 
it  was  met  by  the  teeth  of  the  saws,  and  torn  from  the 


ioo  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

seeds.  The  brushes  then  swept  the  cotton  clear  of  the 
gin.  The  seeds  were  too  large  to  go  between  the  bars 
through  which  the  series  of  saws  protruded,  and  were 
kept  apart  by  themselves.  Of  course  many  improve- 
ments were  made  upon  this  machine,  but  it  was  found 
that  even  in  this  original  form  it  would  enable  one 
man,  using  two  horse-power,  to  clean  the  seed  from  five 
thousand  pounds  of  cotton  in  a  day.  That  meant  that 
fortunes  could  be  made  in  the  hitherto  disregarded  cot- 
ton fields  of  the  South. 

Whitney  now  went  to  Connecticut  to  finish  certain 
improvements  on  the  machine,  to  secure  his  patents, 
and  to  begin  the  manufacturing  of  as  many  gins  as  his 
partner  Miller  should  find  were  needed  in  Georgia. 
The  partners  wrote  frequently  to  each  other,  and  their 
letters  show  the  fierceness  of  the  struggle  they  were 
waging  to  protect  their  rights.  "  It  will  be  necessary," 
wrote  Miller,  "  to  have  a  considerable  number  of  gins 
in  readiness  to  send  out  as  soon  as  the  patent  is  ob- 
tained in  order  to  satisfy  the  absolute  demands  and  make 
people's  heads  easy  on  the  subject ;  for  I  am  informed 
of  two  other  claimants  for  the  honor  of  the  invention 
of  the  cotton-gin  in  addition  to  those  we  knew  before." 

The  two  men  did  everything  in  their  power  to  hasten 
the  building  of  their  gins.  They  knew  their  rivals  were 
unscrupulous,  and  were  in  fact  already  trying  their  best 
to  prejudice  the  minds  of  the  more  conservative  Georgia 
cotton-growers  against  them.  But  money  was  very 
scarce,  and  the  manufacture  of  the  machines  proved  so 
costly  that  Whitney  found  it  impossible  to  furnish  as 
many  gins  as  his  partner  wanted. 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN        101 

Whitney  applied  for  his  patent  in  1793.  The  follow- 
ing April  he  went  back  to  Georgia,  where  he  found  un- 
usually large  crops  of  cotton  had  been  planted,  in  ex- 
pectation of  using  the  gin.  As  there  were  not  enough 
of  his  gins  ready  rivals  were  pushing  their  inferior  ma- 
chines. One  of  these,  called  the  roller-gin,  destroyed 
the  seeds  by  crushing  them  between  two  revolving 
cylinders,  instead  of  separating  them  by  teeth.  A 
large  part  of  the  crushed  seed  was,  however,  apt  to  stay 
in  the  cotton  after  it  had  passed  through  the  machine, 
and  this  form  of  gin  did  not  therefore  produce  as  satis- 
factory results  as  did  Whitney's.  Another  rival  was 
the  saw-gin,  which  was  almost  identical  with  Whitney's 
gin,  except  that  the  saw-teeth  were  cut  in  circular  rings 
of  iron  instead  of  being  made  of  wire.  This  machine 
infringed  the  partners'  patents,  and  caused  them  an  al- 
most endless  series  of  expensive  lawsuits. 

Two  years  of  conflict  in  the  South  proved  the  su- 
periority of  Whitney's  invention  over  all  other  machines, 
but  resulted  in  little  actual  profit.  In  March,  1795,  he 
went  north  to  New  York,  where  he  was  kept  for  several 
weeks  by  illness.  When  he  got  back  to  his  factory  in 
New  Haven  he  found  that  fire  had  wiped  out  his  work- 
shop, together  with  all  his  gins  and  papers.  He  was 
$4,000  in  debt,  and  virtually  bankrupt.  Yet  he  had 
great  courage,  and  fortunately  his  partner  Miller  had 
the  same  faith.  When  Whitney  sent  him  the  news  from 
New  Haven,  Miller  replied,  "I  think  we  ought  to  meet 
such  events  with  equanimity.  We  have  been  pursuing 
a  valuable  object  by  honorable  means,  and  I  trust  that 
all  our  measures  have  been  such  as  reason  and  virtue 


102  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

must  justify.  It  has  pleased  Providence  to  postpone 
the  attainment  of  this  object.  In  the  midst  of  the  re- 
flections which  your  story  has  suggested,  and  with 
feelings  keenly  awake  to  the  heavy,  the  extensive  injury 
we  have  sustained,  I  feel  a  secret  joy  and  satisfaction 
that  you  possess  a  mind  in  this  respect  similar  to  my 
own — that  you  are  not  disheartened,  that  you  do  not  re- 
linquish the  pursuit,  and  that  you  will  persevere,  and 
endeavor,  at  all  events,  to  attain  the  main  object.  This 
is  exactly  consonant  to  my  own  determinations.  I  will 
devote  all  my  time,  all  my  thoughts,  all  my  exertions, 
and  all  the  money  I  can  earn  or  borrow  to  encompass 
and  complete  the  business  we  have  undertaken  ;  and  if 
fortune  should,  by  any  future  disaster,  deny  us  the  boon 
we  ask,  we  will  at  least  deserve  it.  It  shall  never  be 
said  that  we  have  lost  an  object  which  a  little  persever- 
ance could  have  attained.  I  think,  indeed,  it  will  be 
very  extraordinary  if  two  young  men  in  the  prime  of  life, 
with  some  share  of  ingenuity,  and  with  a  little  knowledge 
of  the  world,  a  great  deal  of  industry,  and  a  consider- 
able command  of  property,  should  not  be  able  to  sustain 
such  a  stroke  of  misfortune  as  this,  heavy  as  it  is." 

Whitney  attempted  to  rebuild  his  factory,  but  the 
affairs  of  the  firm  were  in  extreme  jeopardy.  He  had 
to  pay  twelve  per  cent,  a  year  to  borrow  money  for  his 
work.  Then  certain  English  manufacturers  reported 
that  the  cotton  that  was  cleaned  by  Whitney's  gin  was 
not  of  good  quality.  The  struggle  was  a  hard  one. 
He  wrote  to  Miller,  "The  extreme  embarrassments 
which  have  been  for  a  long  time  accumulating  upon 
me  are  now  become  so  great  that  it  will  be  impossible 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN         103 

for  me  to  struggle  against  them  many  days  longer.  It 
has  required  my  utmost  exertions  to  exist  without  mak- 
ing the  least  progress  in  our  business.  I  have  labored 
hard  against  the  strong  current  of  disappointment 
which  has  been  threatening  to  carry  us  down  the 
cataract,  but  I  have  labored  with  a  shattered  oar  and 
struggled  in  vain,  unless  some  speedy  relief  is  ob- 
tained. .  .  .  Life  is  but  short  at  best,  and  six  or 
seven  years  out  of  the  midst  of  it  is  to  him  who  makes 
it  an  immense  sacrifice.  My  most  unremitted  attention 
has  been  devoted  to  our  business.  I  have  sacrificed  to 
it  other  objects  from  which,  before  this  time,  I  might 
certainly  have  gained  $20,000  or  $30,000.  My  whole 
prospects  have  been  embarked  in  it,  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  I  should  before  this  time  have  realized  some- 
thing from  it" 

Pirates  now  filled  the  field,  and  the  lawsuits  which 
they  were  compelled  to  bring  to  defend  themselves 
went  against  them.  Miller  wrote  to  Whitney  on  May 
n,  1797,  "The  event  of  the  first  patent  suit,  after  all 
our  exertions  made  in  such  a  variety  of  ways,  has  gone 
against  us.  The  preposterous  custom  of  trying  civil 
causes  of  this  intricacy  and  magnitude  by  a  common 
jury,  together  with  the  imperfection  of  the  patent  law, 
frustrated  all  our  views,  and  disappointed  expectations 
which  had  become  very  sanguine.  The  tide  of  popular 
opinion  was  running  in  our  favor,  the  judge  was  well 
disposed  toward  us,  and  many  decided  friends  were 
with  us,  who  adhered  firmly  to  our  cause  and  interests. 
The  judge  gave  a  charge  to  the  jury  pointedly  in  our 
favor;  after  which  the  defendant  himself  told  an  ac- 


io4  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

quaintance  of  his  that  he  would  give  $2,000  to  be  free 
from  the  verdict,  and  yet  the  jury  gave  it  against  us, 
after  a  consultation  of  about  an  hour.  And  having 
made  the  verdict  general,  no  appeal  would  lie. 

"  On  Monday  morning,  when  the  verdict  was  ren- 
dered, we  applied  for  a  new  trial,  but  the  judge  refused 
it  to  us  on  the  ground  that  the  jury  might  have  made 
up  their  opinion  on  the  defect  of  the  law,  which  makes 
an  aggression  consist  of  making,  devising,  and  using 
or  selling ;  whereas  we  could  only  charge  the  defendant 
with  using. 

"  Thus,  after  four  years  of  assiduous  labor,  fatigue,  and 
difficulty,  are  we  again  set  afloat  by  a  new  and  most 
unexpected  obstacle.  Our  hopes  of  success  are  now 
removed  to  a  period  still  more  distant  than  before, 
while  our  expenses  are  realized  beyond  all  controversy." 

The  failure  of  that  patent  suit  loosed  all  the  pirates, 
and  Whitney  saw  the  cotton  fields  flooded  with  gins, 
all  of  which  were  really  based  on  his  invention,  and  yet 
from  which  he  did  not  receive  one  penny.  The  public 
had  given  over  paying  any  attention  to  his  patents. 
Every  one  seemed  determined  that  a  machine  which 
meant  so  much  to  the  cotton  lands  should  be  free  to  all, 
irrespective  of  any  legal  or  moral  rights  in  the  matter. 
Miller  wrote  him  a  little  later,  "  The  prospect  of  making 
anything  by  ginning  in  this  state  is  at  an  end.  Sur- 
reptitious gins  are  erected  in  every  part  of  the  country, 
and  the  jurymen  at  Augusta  have  come  to  an  under- 
standing among  themselves  that  they  will  never  give  a 
cause  in  our  favor,  let  the  merits  of  the  case  be  as  they 
may." 


WHITNEY.  THE  INVENTOR  OF  THE   COTTON   GIN 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN         105 

Affairs  could  not  well  have  been  worse  for  the  part- 
ners. They  would  have  been  willing  to  give  up  mak- 
ing gins  and  devote  themselves  to  selling  the  rights 
they  had  already  obtained,  but  it  was  difficult  to  find 
purchasers  for  titles  which  were  so  openly  disregarded 
on  every  hand.  They  found  it  almost  impossible  to 
collect  payments  for  the  few  machines  they  did  sell, 
the  buyers  preferring  to  be  sued,  trusting  to  a  jury  of 
their  neighbors  deciding  for  them  against  the  unpopular 
manufacturers,  who  claimed  to  control  such  an  impor- 
tant machine  as  the  gin.  Whitney  tried  to  sell  his 
patent  rights  for  South  Carolina  to  that  state  itself,  and 
had  the  matter  brought  before  the  Legislature.  It  met 
with  better  success  than  usual.  "  I  have  been  at  this 
place,"  he  writes  in  a  letter,  "  a  little  more  than  two 
weeks  attending  the  Legislature.  A  few  hours  previous 
to  their  adjournment  they  voted  to  purchase  for  the 
state  of  South  Carolina  my  patent-right  to  the  machine 
for  cleaning  cotton  at  $50,000,  of  which  sum  $20,000  is 
to  be  paid  in  hand,  and  the  remainder  in  three  annual 
payments  of  $10,000  each."  To  this  he  added,  "  We 
get  but  a  song  for  it  in  comparison  with  the  worth  of 
the  thing,  but  it  is  securing  something.  It  will  enable 
Miller  &  Whitney  to  pay  their  debts  and  divide  some- 
thing between  them." 

This  plan  of  selling  the  rights  to  the  states  seemed 
to  promise  better  things  for  the  inventor.  In  December, 
1802,  he  arranged  for  the  sale  of  similar  rights  to  the 
state  of  North  Carolina,  and  a  little  later  a  similar 
agreement  was  made  with  Tennessee.  But  imagine 
his  dismay  when  the  South  Carolina  Legislature  sud- 


io6  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

denly  annulled  its  contract  with  him,  refused  to  make 
any  further  payments,  and  began  suit  to  recover 
what  had  already  been  paid  him.  The  current  of 
popular  opinion  had  again  set  against  this  firm  of  two. 
It  was  said  that  a  man  in  Switzerland  had  invented  a 
cotton-gin  before  Whitney,  and  that  the  main  features 
of  his  own  machine  had  been  taken  from  others.  But 
there  were  some  upright  and  honorable  men  in  the 
South  Carolina  Legislature,  and  they  finally  succeeded 
in  convincing  their  associates  that  Whitney  had  been 
maligned.  In  the  session  of  1804  the  Legislature  re- 
scinded its  latest  act  in  regard  to  the  gin,  and  testified 
to  its  high  opinion  of  Whitney. 

The  inventor's  faithful  partner,  Miller,  died  in  1803. 
He  had  stood  by  Whitney  through  thick  and  thin,  and 
had  met  one  buffet  after  another.  In  spite  of  his 
splendid  spirit  the  ceaseless  war  to  protect  their  claims 
had  somewhat  broken  him,  and  he  had  despaired  of 
ever  receiving  justice  in  the  courts.  Whitney  himself 
was  now  receiving  some  return  from  the  sales  to  the 
states,  and  these  enabled  him  to  keep  out  of  debt,  but 
the  greater  part  of  his  earnings  had  still  to  go  for  the 
costs  of  his  suits  at  law. 

In  December,  1807,  the  United  States  Court  in 
Georgia  gave  a  decision  in  Whitney's  favor  against  a 
man  named  Fort  who  had  infringed  on  his  patent. 
The  words  of  Judge  Johnson  in  this  case  became  cele- 
brated. "  To  support  the  originality  of  the  invention," 
said  he,  "  the  complainants  have  produced  a  variety  of 
depositions  of  witnesses,  examined  under  commission, 
whose  examinations  expressly  prove  the  origin,  prog- 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN         107 

ress,  and  completion  of  the  machine  of  Whitney,  one 
of  the  copartners.  Persons  who  were  made  privy  to 
his  first  discovery  testify  to  the  several  experiments 
which  he  made  in  their  presence  before  he  ventured  to 
expose  his  invention  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  public  eye. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  to  resort  to  such  testimony  to 
maintain  this  point.  The  jealousy  of  the  artist  to 
maintain  that  reputation,  which  his  ingenuity  has  justly 
acquired,  has  urged  him  to  unnecessary  pains  on  this 
subject.  There  are  circumstances  in  the  knowledge  of 
all  mankind  which  prove  the  originality  of  this  in- 
vention more  satisfactorily  to  the  mind  than  the  direct 
testimony  of  a  host  of  witnesses.  The  cotton-plant 
furnished  clothing  to  mankind  before  the  age  of  Herod- 
otus. The  green  seed  is  a  species  much  more  pro- 
ductive than  the  black,  and  by  nature  adapted  to  a 
much  greater  variety  of  climate,  but  by  reason  of  the 
strong  adherence  of  the  fibre  to  the  seed,  without  the 
aid  of  some  more  powerful  machine  for  separating  it 
than  any  formerly  known  among  us,  the  cultivation  of 
it  would  never  have  been  made  an  object.  The  machine 
of  which  Mr.  Whitney  claims  the  invention  so  facilitates 
the  preparation  of  this  species  for  use  that  the  cultiva- 
tion of  it  has  suddenly  become  an  object  of  infinitely 
greater  national  importance  than  that  of  the  other 
species  ever  can  be.  Is  it,  then,  to  be  imagined  that  if 
this  machine  had  been  before  discovered,  the  use  of  it 
would  ever  have  been  lost,  or  could  have  been  confined 
to  any  tract  or  country  left  unexplored  by  commercial 
enterprise?  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  remark  further 
upon  this  subject.  A  number  of  years  have  elapsed 


io8  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

since  Mr.  Whitney  took  out  his  patent,  and  no  one  has 
produced  or  pretended  to  prove  the  existence  of  a 
machine  of  similar  construction  or  use. 

"With  regard  to  the  utility  of  this  discovery  the 
court  would  deem  it  a  waste  of  time  to  dwell  long  upon 
this  topic.  Is  there  a  man  who  hears  us  who  has  not 
experienced  its  utility?  The  whole  interior  of  the 
Southern  states  was  languishing  and  its  inhabitants 
emigrating  for  want  of  some  object  to  engage  their 
attention  and  employ  their  industry,  when  the  invention 
of  this  machine  at  once  opened  views  to  them  which 
set  the  whole  country  in  active  motion.  From  child- 
hood to  age  it  has  presented  to  us  a  lucrative  employ- 
ment. Our  debts  have  been  paid  off,  our  capitals  have 
increased,  and  our  lands  trebled  themselves  in  value. 
We  cannot  express  the  weight  of  the  obligation  which 
the  country  owes  to  this  invention.  The  extent  of  it 
cannot  now  be  seen.  Some  faint  presentiment  may  be 
formed  from  the  reflection  that  cotton  is  rapidly  sup- 
planting wool,  flax,  silk,  and  even  furs  in  manufactures, 
and  may  one  day  profitably  supply  the  use  of  specie  in 
our  East  India  trade.  Our  sister  states  also  participate 
in  the  benefits  of  this  invention,  for  besides  affording 
the  raw  material  for  their  manufacturers,  the  bulkiness 
and  quantity  of  the  article  afford  a  valuable  employ- 
ment for  their  shipping." 

Whitney  had  fought  long  and  hard,  and  had  at  last 
received  at  least  partial  justice.  But  it  had  been  so 
slow  in  coming  that,  when  his  rights  were  to  a  certain 
extent  established,  there  were  only  a  few  years  left  his 
patents  to  run.  He  had  realized  for  some  time  that  he 


WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON-GIN         109 

must  look  elsewhere  for  financial  returns,  and  so,  in 
1798,  had  begun  the  manufacture  of  firearms.  He 
purchased  a  site  for  his  factory  near  New  Haven,  at  a 
place  called  Whitneyville  now,  then  known  as  East 
Rock.  Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
ordered  10,000  stand  of  arms  from  him,  and  he  con- 
tracted to  furnish  them.  At  first  he  met  with  many 
difficulties,  owing  to  lack  of  proper  materials  and  work- 
men, and  his  own  lack  of  familiarity  with  the  business. 
But  as  time  went  on  the  works  improved,  and  Whitney 
applied  his  inventive  genius  to  many  important  im- 
provements. He  received  other  contracts,  and  even- 
tually the  national  government  came  to  rely  upon  his 
factory  for  a  large  part  of  its  war  supplies. 

In  1812  Whitney  applied  for  a  renewal  of  his  patent 
for  the  cotton-gin.  He  set  forth  the  facts  that  he  had 
received  almost  no  compensation  for  his  invention,  that 
it  had  made  the  fortune  of  many  of  the  Southern  states, 
that  it  enabled  one  man  to  do  the  work  of  a  thousand  men 
before,  but  that,  placing  the  value  of  one  man's  labor 
at  twenty  cents  a  day,  the  whole  amount  he  had  re- 
ceived was  less  that  the  value  of  the  labor  saved  in  one 
hour  by  the  use  of  his  machines  throughout  the  coun- 
try. But  again  there  was  opposition  from  many  in- 
fluential Southern  planters,  and  his  application  was 
denied. 

The  inventor  was,  however,  making  money  from  his 
factory  for  firearms,  and  his  personal  fortunes  had 
brightened.  In  1817  he  married  Henrietta  Edwards, 
the  daughter  of  Judge  Pierpont  Edwards,  of  Connecti- 
cut. His  home  life  was  ideally  happy,  he  was  fond  of 


no  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

New  Haven,  and  eventually  he  received  increasing 
evidence  that  the  people  of  the  cotton  lands  were  learn- 
ing their  indebtedness  to  him,  and  were  anxious  to 
make  some  restitution  for  their  earlier  disregard  of  his 
claims.  He  died  January  8,  1825. 

The  material  value  of  Eli  Whitney's  invention  can 
hardly  be  estimated.  It  opened  a  new  kingdom  to  the 
South.  It  built  up  countless  acres  of  hitherto  unprofit- 
able land.  But  in  spite  of  men's  recognition  of  the 
value  of  his  cotton-gin,  and  their  instant  adoption  of  it 
everywhere,  he  was  for  years  denied  his  title  to  it,  and 
had  to  wage  a  warfare  that  is  almost  without  parallel 
in  the  history  of  American  inventors. 


VII 

FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT 

1765-1815 

THERE  is  a  peculiar  charm  attaching  to  the  figure  of 
Robert  Fulton,  the  attraction  that  plays  about  the  man 
who  is  many-sided,  and  picturesque  on  whatever  side 
one  looks  at  him.  He  was  a  man  at  home  on  both 
shores  of  the  Atlantic,  at  a  time  when  such  men  were 
rare.  He  had  been  taught  drawing  by  Major  Andre, 
when  the  latter  was  a  prisoner  of  war  in  the  little 
Pennsylvania  town  of  Lancaster.  He  had  hung  out  his 
sign  as  Painter  of  Miniatures  at  the  corner  of  Second 
and  Walnut  Streets  in  Philadelphia,  under  the  friendly 
patronage  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  He  had  lodged  in 
London  at  the  house  of  Benjamin  West,  and  shown  his 
pictures  at  the  Royal  Academy.  Two  great  English 
noblemen  became  his  allies  in  scientific  studies. 
Napoleon,  as  First  Consul,  bargained  with  him  over  his 
invention  of  torpedoes.  Finally  he  sent  the  little 
Clermont  up  the  Hudson  under  steam.  There  was  a 
man  of  rare  ability,  one  who  had  many  hostages  to 
give  to  fortune.  He  was  the  artist  turned  inventor,  as 
many  another  has  done,  and  if  he  was  not  as  great  an 
artist  as  Leonardo  da  Vinci  neither  was  Leonardo  as 
great  an  inventor  as  Robert  Fulton. 

Fulton  invented  a  machine  for  cutting  marble,  one  for 


U2  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

spinning  flax,  a  double  inclined  plane  for  canal  naviga- 
tion, a  machine  for  twisting  rope,  an  earth-scoop  for 
canal  and  irrigation  purposes,  a  cable-cutter,  the  earliest 
French  panorama,  a  submarine  torpedo  boat,  and  the 
steamboat.  Other  men  had  worked  over  steamboats, 
but  he  reached  the  goal.  He  made  the  steamboat 
practicable,  as  Watt  had  the  steam-engine.  Above  all, 
he  was  very  fortunate ;  he  found  his  countrymen  ready 
to  welcome  the  Clermont,  and  to  fall  in  with  his  plans, 
an  attitude  which  had  not  faced  certain  men  in  Eng- 
land and  in  France  who  had  built  similar  boats  earlier 
than  Fulton.  Some  engineers  have  been  tempted  to 
call  him  a  lucky  amateur,  a  talented  artist  who  hap- 
pened to  become  interested  in  new  methods  of  naviga- 
tion. If  one  grants  all  this  there  is  still  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  Clermont1  s  success  that  opened  the  water- 
courses of  the  world  to  steam. 

"  Quicksilver  Bob  "  he  was  called  as  a  boy  in  Lan- 
caster, because  he  used  to  buy  all  that  metal  he  could 
for  experiments.  Even  then  he  was  many-sided.  He 
made  designs  for  firearms  and  experimented  with  guns 
to  learn  the  carrying  distance  of  various  bores  and  balls. 
There  was  a  factory  in  Lancaster  where  arms  were 
being  made  for  the  Continental  troops,  and  "  Quick- 
silver Bob  "  was  given  the  run  of  the  place.  In  addi- 
tion he  painted  signs  to  hang  before  the  village  shops 
and  taverns. 

To  simplify  his  fishing  expeditions  he  made  a  model 
of  a  boat  propelled  by  paddles,  and  later  he  built  such 
a  boat  and  used  it  on  the  Conestoga  River.  No  one 
could  tell  what  he  would  turn  to  next.  When  Hessian 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT          113 

prisoners  were  kept  in  the  neighborhood  the  town  boys 
would  go  out  to  look  at  them,  and  Robert  would  make 
sketches  of  them.  These  sketches  gave  him  a  local 
reputation,  and  his  friends  were  not  surprised  when  at 
seventeen  he  left  Lancaster  to  seek  his  fortune  as  a 
painter  of  portraits  and  miniatures  in  Philadelphia. 

He  was  well  liked  in  the  city.  He  had  a  talent  for 
friendship,  which,  combined  with  good  looks,  more 
than  ordinary  intelligence,  and  most  uncommon  indus- 
try, carried  him  far.  He  drew  plans  for  machinery, 
he  designed  houses  and  carriages,  he  worked  as  pro- 
fessional painter.  Franklin  became  his  patron  and 
adviser.  Then  illness  sent  him  to  the  fashionable  hot 
springs  of  Virginia,  and  there  he  heard  so  much  talk 
of  England  and  of  France  that  he  decided  to  see 
those  countries  for  himself.  Before  he  left  America 
he  bought  a  farm  in  Washington  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  order  to  insure  a  home  for  his  mother  and 
sisters.  That  done,  he  sailed  for  England,  with  a 
packet  of  letters  of  introduction,  in  1 786. 

In  London  Fulton  professed  himself  to  be  an  artist, 
although  his  thoughts  were  constantly  tending  toward 
inventions.  He  lived  at  the  house  of  Benjamin  West, 
and  painted,  and  his  portraits  were  shown  at  the 
Royal  Academy  and  at  the  Society  of  Artists.  Be- 
times he  enjoyed  himself  in  society  and  in  trips  to 
the  counties.  He  journeyed  into  Devonshire  and 
stayed  at  Powderham  Castle,  copying  famous  pictures 
there.  Wherever  he  went  he  made  friends,  and  their 
influence  was  constantly  helping  him  forward  on  what 
must  have  been  a  somewhat  precarious  career. 


ii4  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Two  of  these  friends,  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater  and 
the  Earl  of  Stanhope,  were  scientists  of  repute.  The 
Duke  owned  a  great  estate,  of  untold  mineral  wealth, 
which  had  never  been  properly  worked  because  of  lack 
of  transportation  facilities.  He  had  recently  built  sev- 
eral canals  on  this  property,  and  was  at  the  head  of  a 
number  of  companies  which  were  planning  to  inter- 
sect England  with  waterways.  He  interested  Fulton 
in  his  schemes  and  gradually  weaned  his  thoughts 
away  from  art  to  civil  engineering.  The  Earl  of  Stan- 
hope corresponded  with  him  over  the  possibility  of 
propelling  boats  by  steam,  and  in  these  letters  Fulton 
first  gave  the  outlines  of  the  plans  he  was  later  to 
perfect  in  the  Clermont.  The  Earl  was  deeply  inter- 
ested, and  encouraged  the  young  American  to  perse- 
vere, but  for  the  time  Fulton  left  the  steamboat  to 
work  out  other  problems. 

The  possibility  of  a  great  English  canal  system  ap- 
pealed to  him  strongly,  and  in  1794  he  obtained  an 
English  patent  for  a  double  inclined  plane  for  raising 
and  lowering  canal  boats.  Later  he  took  English 
patents  on  a  machine  for  spinning  flax,  and  on  a  new 
device  for  twisting  hemp  rope.  There  followed  others 
for  a  machine  that  should  scoop  out  earth  to  make 
canals  or  aqueducts,  for  a  "  Market  or  Passage  Boat " 
to  use  on  canals,  and  for  a  "  Dispatch  Boat "  that  should 
travel  quickly.  He  sent  drawings  of  all  these  inven- 
tions to  his  influential  friends,  hoping  that  they  would 
push  them,  and  he  also  wrote  and  published  "  A  Trea- 
tise on  Canal  Navigation."  By  this  time  he  would 
seem  to  have  given  up  all  thought  of  the  artist's  ca- 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT  115 

reer,  arid  to  have  turned  his  talent  with  the  pen  to 
the  aid  of  his  mechanical  drawings. 

The  French  Revolution  was  imminent,  and  Fulton 
was  busy  studying  the  conditions  that  were  leading 
to  it.  He  believed  that  Free  Trade  would  tend  to 
abolish  many  of  the  difficulties  that  divided  nations, 
and  he  wrote  a  paper  on  that  subject,  addressed  to 
the  French  Directory.  He  believed  in  democracy, 
but  he  was  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  the  young 
American  republic  should  take  no  part  in  the  struggle 
for  liberty  in  Europe.  In  a  letter  written  in  1794  he 
says,  "It  has  been  much  Agitated  here  whether  the 
Americans  would  join  the  French.  But  I  Believe 
every  Cool  friend  to  America  could  wish  them  to  Re- 
main nuter.  The  americans  have  no  troublesome 
Neighbors,  they  are  without  foreign  Possessions,  and 
do  not  want  the  alliance  of  any  Nation,  for  this  Reason 
they  have  nothing  to  do  with  foreign  Politics.  And 
the  Art  of  Peace  Should  be  the  Study  of  every  young 
American  which  I  most  Sincerely  hope  they  will 
maintain." 

But  Fulton  himself  was  in  a  manner  to  be  drawn 
into  the  turmoil.  When  France  had  quieted  some- 
what England  began  that  policy  of  aggression  on  the 
sea  toward  American  ships  and  crews  that  was  to  lead 
to  the  War  of  1812.  Fulton's  attention  was  drawn 
from  canal-building  to  the  possibility  of  some  inven- 
tion that  might  tend  to  subserve  peace,  and  this  in 
time  led  him  to  design  and  build  the  first  torpedo. 

Again  Fulton's  talent  for  friendship  stood  him  in 
good  stead.  When  he  had  left  London  for  Paris  he 


n6  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

called  upon  Joel  Barlow,  poet  and  American  diplomat, 
and  was  urged  to  take  up  his  residence  first  at  the 
hotel  where  the  Barlows  were  staying,  and  later  at 
their  house.  For  seven  years  Fulton  lived  with  them, 
busy  about  the  most  diverse  matters,  and  always 
keenly  interested  in  the  struggles  of  the  new  and  hot- 
tempered  republic.  A  rich  American  had  bought  a 
tract  of  central  real  estate  in  Paris  and  had  built  a  row 
of  shops  arranged  on  the  two  sides  of  a  cloister. 
Fulton  suggested  that  he  add  a  panorama  to  the 
other  buildings,  and  the  idea  was  adopted.  Fulton 
was  given  charge,  and  by  1800  he  had  built  and 
opened  the  first  panorama  that  Paris  had  ever  seen. 
The  show  made  money,  and  the  inventor,  a  perfect 
Jack-of-all-trades,  added  another  feather  to  his  vari- 
colored cap. 

In  December,  1797,  Fulton  had  interested  his  friend 
Barlow  in  a  machine  intended  to  drive  "  carcasses  "  of 
gunpowder  under  water.  But  his  first  experiments  at 
exploding  the  gunpowder  at  a  definite  moment  failed. 
Then  he  moved  to  Havre,  where  he  would  have  greater 
opportunity  to  try  out  his  torpedo-boats,  as  he  chris- 
tened them.  His  idea  was  that  if  his  invention  suc- 
ceeded war  would  be  made  so  dangerous  that  nations 
would  be  obliged  to  keep  peace.  Barlow  was  able  to 
assist  him  with  money  until  he  had  built  and  actually 
navigated  some  of  his  torpedoes  along  the  coast.  When 
he  had  satisfied  himself,  he  wrote  to  the  French  govern- 
ment, the  Directory,  offering  them  his  invention  for  use 
against  their  enemies. 

The  Directory  was  pleased  with  the  offer,  but  the 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT  117 

government  was  in  so  much  of  a  turmoil  that  it  was 
months  before  any  positive  action  was  taken.  At 
length,  on  February  28,  1801,  Fulton  received  word 
from  Napoleon,  the  First  Consul,  to  send  his  torpedo- 
boat  against  the  English  fleet.  He  set  out;  but  the 
English  fleet  did  not  come  his  way,  and  he  spent  the 
summer  vainly  reconnoitering  along  the  coast.  To 
show  the  value  of  his  invention  he  arranged  to  attack 
a  sloop.  This  he  described  in  his  letter  to  the  French 
Commission  on  Submarine  Navigation.  "  To  prove 
this  experiment,"  he  wrote,  "  the  Prefect  Maritime  and 
Admiral  Villaret  ordered  a  small  Sloop  of  about  40 
feet  long  to  be  anchored  in  the  Road,  on  the  23rd 
of  Thermidor.  With  a  bomb  containing  about  20 
pounds  of  powder  I  advanced  to  within  200  Metres, 
then  taking  my  direction  so  as  to  pass  near  the  Sloop, 
I  struck  her  with  the  bomb  in  my  passage.  The  ex- 
plosion took  place  and  the  sloop  was  torn  into  atoms, 
in  fact,  nothing  was  left  but  the  buye  [buoy]  and  cable. 
And  the  concussion  was  so  great  that  a  column  of 
Water,  Smoke  and  fibres  of  the  Sloop  were  cast  from 
80  to  loo  feet  in  Air.  This  simple  Experiment  at  once 
proved  the  effect  of  the  Bomb  Submarine  to  the  satis- 
faction of  all  the  Spectators." 

This  exhibition  took  place  in  August,  1801,  before  a 
crowd  of  onlookers,  and  at  once  established  the  value 
of  the  torpedo.  But,  as  he  was  unable  to  attack  any 
English  ships,  the  French  government  lost  interest  in 
his  invention,  and  Napoleon's  scientific  advisers  re- 
ported to  him  that  they  regarded  the  young  American 
as  "  a  visionary." 


n8  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

At  the  same  time  the  British  government  awakened 
to  the  great  possibilities  of  Fulton's  device.  His  old 
friend,  Lord  Stanhope,  urged  that  suitable  offers  be 
made  him.  This  was  ultimately  done,  and  in  April, 
1804,  Fulton  left  France  and  returned  to  London.  A 
contract  was  drawn  up  by  which  he  was  to  put  his  tor- 
pedo at  the  service  of  the  English  government  and  re- 
ceive in  return  two  hundred  pounds  a  month  and  one- 
half  the  value  of  all  ships  that  might  be  destroyed  by 
his  invention. 

This  arrangement,  however,  was  of  short  duration. 
A  change  of  ministry  dampened  his  hopes,  and  in  1806 
the  government  declined  to  adopt  his  invention  on  his 
terms.  At  the  same  time  they  tried  to  suppress  this 
new  method  of  warfare,  and  to  that  end  made  him  an- 
other offer.  Fulton,  always  an  ardent  patriot,  answered, 
"  At  all  events,  whatever  may  be  your  reward,  I  will 
never  consent  to  let  these  inventions  lie  dormant  should 
my  Country  at  any  time  have  need  of  them.  Were 
you  to  grant  me  an  annuity  of  ^20,000  a  year,  I  would 
sacrifice  all  to  the  safety  &  independence  of  my  Coun- 
try. But  I  hope  that  England  and  America  will  un- 
derstand their  mutual  Interest  too  well  to  War  with  each 
other  And  I  have  no  desire  to  Introduce  my  Engines 
into  practice  for  the  benefit  of  any  other  Nation." 

He  was  already  eager  to  return  home  to  work  upon 
his  long  cherished  plans  for  a  steamboat.  He  con- 
tinues, "  As  I  am  bound  in  honor  to  Mr.  Livingston  to 
put  my  steamboat  in  practice  and  such  engine  is  of 
more  immediate  use  to  my  Country  than  Submarine 
Navigation,  I  wish  to  devote  some  years  to  it  and 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT          119 

should  the  British  Government  allow  me  an  annuity  I 
should  not  only  do  justice  to  my  friends  but  it  would 
enable  me  to  carry  my  steamboat  and  other  plans  into 
effect  for  the  good  of  my  Country. — It  has  never 
been  my  intention  to  hide  these  Inventions  from 
the  World  on  any  consideration,  on  the  contrary  it  has 
been  my  intention  to  make  them  public  as  soon  as  con- 
sistent with  strict  justice  to  all  with  whom  I  am  con- 
cerned. For  myself  I  have  ever  considered  the  interest 
of  America  [n]  free  commerce,  the  interest  of  mankind, 
the  magnitude  of  the  object  in  view  and  the  rational 
reputation  connected  with  it  superior  to  all  calculations 
of  a  pecuniary  kind." 

Satisfactory  terms  of  agreement  were  reached,  and 
in  1806  Fulton  was  free  and  ready  to  return  to  that  na- 
tive land  from  which  he  had  been  away  twenty  years. 

The  building  of  a  practicable  steamboat  had  long 
been  in  his  mind.  He  had  corresponded  on  the  sub- 
ject with  Chancellor  Livingston,  who  had  devoted  much 
time  and  money  to  new  inventions.  Fulton,  when  in 
Paris,  had  experimented  with  models  of  steamboats,  and 
had  studied  the  records  of  what  had  already  been  done 
in  that  line.  In  1802  he  had  started  a  course  of  calcu- 
lations on  the  resistance  of  water,  and  the  comparative 
advantages  of  the  known  means  of  propelling  vessels. 
He  had  rejected  the  plan  of  using  paddles  or  oars,  and 
also  of  forcing  water  out  of  the  stern  of  the  vessel,  and 
had  retained  the  idea  of  the  paddle-wheel.  This  he 
tried  successfully  on  a  small  model  that  he  built  and 
used  on  a  river  that  ran  through  the  village  of  Plom- 
bieres.  He  then  built  an  experimental  boat,  sixty-six 


120  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

feet  long  and  eight  feet  wide,  and  this  he  exhibited  to 
a  large  audience  of  Parisians  in  August,  1803.  His 
success  led  him  to  order  certain  parts  of  a  steam-engine 
from  the  firm  of  Boulton  and  Watt  in  Birmingham, 
these  to  be  shipped  to  America.  Meantime  Chancel- 
lor Livingston  had  obtained  for  himself  and  Fulton  the 
exclusive  right  to  navigate  the  waters  of  New  York 
state  by  vessels  propelled  by  fire  or  steam. 

As  soon  as  he  reached  America  in  December,  1806, 
Fulton  started  work  on  his  boat.  He  engaged  Charles 
Brownne,  a  ship-builder  on  the  East  River,  to  lay  down 
the  hull.  He  decided  to  name  the  vessel  the  Clermont, 
the  name  of  Chancellor  Livingston's  country-place  on 
the  Hudson,  where  Fulton  had  been  a  guest.  The  en- 
gine duly  arrived  from  Birmingham  and  was  carried  to 
the  shipyard.  As  a  number  of  loafers  and  hangers-on 
about  the  docks  threatened  injury  to  "  Fulton's  Folly," 
as  the  building  boat  was  called,  he  had  to  engage  watch- 
men to  guard  his  property.  By  August  the  boat  was 
finished,  and  was  moved  by  her  own  engine  from  the 
yards  to  the  Jersey  shore.  She  was  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long,  thirteen  feet  wide,  and  drew  two  feet  of 
water.  Before  she  had  gone  a  quarter  of  a  mile  both 
passengers  and  observers  on  the  shore  were  satisfied 
that  the  steamboat  was  a  thoroughly  practicable  vessel. 

On  Sunday,  August  9,  1807,  Fulton  made  a  short 
trial  trip  of  the  Clermont,  and  wrote  an  account  of  it 
to  Livingston.  "Yesterday  about  12  o'clock  I  put 
the  steamboat  in  motion  first  with  a  paddle  8  inches 
broad,  3  feet  long,  with  which  I  ran  about  one  mile 
up  the  East  River  against  a  tide  of  about  one  mile  an 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT          121 

hour,  it  being  nearly  high  water.  I  then  anchored  and 
put  on  another  paddle  8  inches  wide,  3  feet  long, 
started  again  and  then,  according  to  my  best  observa- 
tions, I  went  3  miles  an  hour,  that  is  two  against  a 
tide  of  one:  another  board  of  8  inches  was  wanting, 
which  had  not  been  prepared,  I  therefore  turned  the 
boat  and  ran  down  with  the  tide — and  turned  her  round 
neatly  into  the  berth  from  which  I  parted.  She  answers 
the  helm  equal  to  anything  that  ever  was  built,  and  I 
turned  her  twice  in  three  times  her  own  length.  Much 
has  been  proved  by  this  experiment.  First  that  she 
will,  when  in  complete  order,  run  up  to  my  full  calcula- 
tions. Second,  that  my  axles,  I  believe,  will  be  suf- 
ficiently strong  to  run  the  engine  to  her  full  power. 
Third,  that  she  steers  well,  and  can  be  turned  with  ease." 
It  was  on  August  17,  1807,  that  the  Clermont 
made  her  first  historic  trip  up  the  Hudson.  At  one 
o'clock  she  cast  off  from  her  dock  near  the  State's 
Prison,  in  what  was  called  Greenwich  Village,  on  the 
North  River.  The  inventor  described  the  voyage 
characteristically  to  a  friend.  He  wrote,  "  The  moment 
arrived  in  which  the  word  was  to  be  given  for  the  boat 
to  move.  My  friends  were  in  groups  on  the  deck. 
There  was  anxiety  mixed  with  fear  among  them.  They 
were  silent,  sad  and  weary.  I  read  in  their  looks 
nothing  but  disaster,  and  almost  repented  of  my  efforts. 
The  signal  was  given  and  the  boat  moved  on  a  short 
distance  and  then  stopped  and  became  immovable. 
To  the  silence  of  the  preceding  moment,  now  suc- 
ceeded murmurs  of  discontent,  and  agitations,  and 
whispers  and  shrugs.  I  could  hear  distinctly  repeated 


122  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

— '  I  told  you  it  was  so  ;  it  is  a  foolish  scheme  :  I  wish 
we  were  well  out  of  it.' 

"  I  elevated  myself  upon  a  platform  and  addressed 
the  assembly.  I  stated  that  I  knew  not  what  was  the 
matter,  but  if  they  would  be  quiet  and  indulge  me  for 
half  an  hour,  I  would  either  go  on  or  abandon  the 
voyage  for  that  time.  This  short  respite  was  conceded 
without  objection.  I  went  below  and  examined  the 
machinery,  and  discovered  that  the  cause  was  a  slight 
maladjustment  of  some  of  the  work.  In  a  short  time  it 
was  obviated.  The  boat  was  again  put  in  motion. 
She  continued  to  move  on.  All  were  still  incredulous. 
None  seemed  willing  to  trust  the  evidence  of  their  own 
senses.  We  left  the  fair  city  of  New  York  ;  we  passed 
through  the  romantic  and  ever- vary  ing  scenery  of  the 
Highlands ;  we  descried  the  clustering  houses  of  Albany ; 
we  reached  its  shores, — and  then,  even  then,  when  all 
seemed  achieved,  I  was  the  victim  of  disappointment. 

"  Imagination  superseded  the  influence  of  fact.  It 
was  then  doubted  if  it  could  be  done  again,  or  if  done, 
it  was  doubted  if  it  could  be  made  of  any  great  value." 

But  the  Clermont,  in  spite  of  all  prophecies  to  the 
contrary,  had  traveled  under  her  own  steam  from  New 
York  to  Albany,  and  the  trip  was  the  crowning  event  in 
Fulton's  career  as  inventor.  At  the  time  she  made  that 
first  voyage  the  Clermont  was  a  very  simple  craft, 
decked  for  a  short  distance  at  bow  and  stern,  the 
engine  open  to  view,  and  back  of  the  engine  a  house 
like  that  on  a  canal-boat  to  shelter  the  boiler  and  pro- 
vide an  apartment  for  the  officers.  The  rudder  was  of 
the  pattern  used  on  sailing-vessels,  and  was  moved  by 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT  123 

a  tiller.  The  boiler  was  of  the  same  pattern  used  in 
Watt's  steam-engines,  and  was  set  in  masonry.  The 
condenser  stood  in  a  large  cold-water  cistern,  and  the 
weight  of  the  masonry  and  the  cistern  greatly  detracted 
from  the  boat's  buoyancy.  She  was  so  very  unwieldy 
that  the  captains  of  other  river  boats,  realizing  the 
danger  of  the  steamboat's  competition,  were  able  to 
run  into  her,  and  make  it  appear  that  the  fault  was  hers  ; 
and  as  a  result  she  several  times  reached  port  with 
only  a  single  wheel. 

There  were  almost  as  many  quaint  descriptions  of  the 
boat  as  there  were  people  who  saw  it.  One  described 
it  as  an  "  ungainly  craft  looking  precisely  like  a  back- 
woods sawmill  mounted  on  a  scow  and  set  on  fire." 
Others  said  the  Clermont  appeared  at  night  like  a 
"  monster  moving  on  the  waters  defying  the  winds  and 
tide,  and  breathing  flames  and  smoke."  Some  of  the  ig- 
norant along  the  Hudson  fell  on  their  knees  and  prayed 
to  be  delivered  from  the  monster.  The  boat  must  have 
been  a  very  strange  sight ;  pine  wood  was  used  for  fuel, 
and  when  the  engineer  stirred  the  fire  a  torrent  of 
sparks  went  shooting  into  the  sky. 

The  boat  was  clumsy  beyond  question.  The  exposed 
machinery  creaked  and  groaned,  the  unguarded  paddle- 
wheels  revolved  ponderously  and  splashed  a  great  deal 
of  water,  the  tiller  was  badly  placed  for  steering.  Ful- 
ton quickly  remedied  some  of  the  defects,  and  the 
Clermont  that  began  to  make  regular  runs  from 
New  York  to  Albany  a  little  later  was  quite  a  different 
boat  from  that  which  made  her  maiden  voyage  on  Au- 
gust i  yth. 


124  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

In  spite  of  Fulton's  gloomy  tone  in  his  letter  there 
were  many  among  the  men  and  women  who  made  the 
first  trip  with  him  who  were  not  dubious  concerning 
the  invention.  As  soon  as  the  first  difficulties  were 
overcome  and  the  boat  was  moving  on  a  steady  keel, 
the  passengers,  most  of  whom  were  close  friends  of 
Fulton  and  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  broke  into  song. 
As  they  passed  by  the  Palisades  it  is  said  they  sang 
"  Ye  Banks  and  Braes  o'  Bonny  Doon."  Fulton  him- 
self could  not  be  overlooked.  A  contemporary  de- 
scribed him :  "  Among  a  thousand  individuals  you 
might  readily  point  out  Robert  Fulton.  He  was  con- 
spicuous for  his  gentle,  manly  bearing  and  freedom 
from  embarrassment,  for  his  extreme  activity,  his 
height,  somewhat  over  six  feet, — his  slender  yet  ener- 
getic form  and  well  accommodated  dress,  for  his  full 
and  curly  dark  brown  hair,  carelessly  scattered  over  his 
forehead  and  falling  around  his  neck.  His  complexion 
was  fair,  his  forehead  high,  his  eyes  dark  and  penetra- 
ting and  revolving  in  a  capacious  orbit  of  cavernous 
depths ;  his  brow  was  thick  and  evinced  strength  and 
determination ;  his  nose  was  long  and  prominent,  his 
mouth  and  lips  were  beautifuly  proportioned,  giving 
the  impress  of  eloquent  utterance.  Trifles  were  not 
calculated  to  impede  him  or  damp  his  perseverance." 

Fulton  was  now  forty-two  years  old,  and  famous  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  He  asked  Harriet  Living- 
ston, a  near  relation  of  his  friend  the  Chancellor,  to  be- 
come his  wife.  She  accepted  him,  and  he  was  warmly 
welcomed  into  that  rich  and  influential  family. 

On  September  2,  1807,  Fulton  advertised  regular 


FULTON  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT  125 

sailings  of  the  Clermont  between  New  York  and 
Albany.  These  proved  popular,  and  other  routes  were 
soon  planned.  That  winter  he  made  many  changes  in 
the  vessel  and  worked  out  certain  devices  that  he 
wished  to  patent.  The  name  of  Clermont  was 
changed  to  the  North  River  the  following  spring, 
and  the  reconstructed  steamboat  continued  in  regular 
service  on  the  Hudson  for  a  number  of  years.  In  the 
succeeding  year  he  built  other  boats,  the  Rariton,  to 
run  from  New  York  to  New  Brunswick,  and  The  Car 
of  Neptune  as  a  second  Hudson  River  boat.  He  was 
very  much  occupied  perfecting  new  commercial  schemes, 
protecting  his  patents  from  a  horde  of  pirates,  and 
planning  to  introduce  his  invention  into  Europe.  Be- 
fore his  death  in  1815,  eight  years  after  the  Cler- 
monfs  first  trip,  he  had  built  seventeen  boats,  among 
them  the  first  steam  war  frigate,  a  torpedo  boat,  and 
the  first  steam  ferry-boats  with  rounded  ends  to  be  used 
for  approaching  opposite  shores. 

A  century  has  not  dimmed  Fulton's  fame,  nor  set 
aside  his  claim  to  be  the  practical  inventor  of  the  steam- 
boat. He  built  the  first  one  to  be  used  in  American 
waters,  and  his  model  was  copied  in  all  other  countries. 
He  carried  his  ideas  to  completion,  and  that,  with  his 
talent  to  observe  and  improve  upon  other  men's  work, 
gave  him  his  leading  place  among  the  world's  pio- 
neers. 


VIII 

DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP 

1778-1829 

HUMPHREY  DAVY,  according  to  his  contemporaries, 
could  have  chosen  any  one  of  several  roads  to  fame. 
Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  said  of  him,  "  Had  not  Davy 
been  the  first  chemist,  he  probably  would  have  been 
the  first  poet  of  his  age."  Among  many  activities  he 
invented  the  safety-lamp,  the  object  of  which  was  to  pro- 
tect miners  from  the  perils  of  exploding  fire-damp. 
George  Stephenson  invented  a  similar  device  at  about 
the  same  time,  or  a  little  earlier,  but  Davy's  lamp  was 
the  one  most  generaly  adopted,  and  his  claim  as  in- 
ventor is  commonly  recognized,  while  Stephenson's 
fame  is  secure  with  the  perfection  of  the  steam-locomo- 
tive and  the  railroad. 

Davy  was  born  at  Penzance  in  Cornwall  December 
J7»  I778»  the  eldest  son  in  a  family  of  five  children. 
More  alert  and  imaginative  than  other  boys,  and  with 
an  uncommonly  good  memory,  he  made  great  head- 
way at  Mr.  Coryton's  grammar  school,  where  he  went 
when  he  was  six.  Coleridge's  opinion  of  him  may  have 
been  correct,  for  history  says  that  he  was  a  fluent  writer 
of  English  and  Latin  verses  while  still  a  schoolboy, 
and  that  he  could  tell  stories  well  enough  to  hold  an 
audience  of  his  teachers  and  neighbors.  He  liked  fine 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  127 

language  and  the  arts  of  speech,  and,  according  to  his 
brother,  Dr.  John  Davy,  he  cultivated  those  arts  in  his 
walks.  Once  when  he  was  taking  a  bottle  of  medicine 
to  a  sick  woman  in  the  country  he  began  to  declaim  a 
stirring  speech,  and  at  its  climax  threw  the  bottle  away. 
He  never  noticed  its  loss  until  he  reached  the  patient, 
and  then  wondered  what  could  have  become  of  the  vial. 
The  bottle  was  found  next  morning  in  a  hay-field  ad- 
joining the  path  Davy  had  taken. 

When  he  was  fourteen  he  left  Mr.  Coryton's  school 
for  the  Truro  Grammar  School,  where  he  stayed  for  a 
year.  Here  he  was  famed  for  his  good-humor  and  a 
very  original  turn  of  mind.  A  school  friend,  reminis- 
cing about  Humphrey,  told  of  a  walk  several  of  them 
took  one  hot  day.  "  Whilst  others  complained  of  the 
heat,"  said  he,  "  and  whilst  I  unbuttoned  my  waistcoat, 
Humphrey  appeared  with  his  great-coat  close-buttoned 
up  to  his  chin,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  declared,  of  keep- 
ing out  the  heat.  This  was  laughed  at  at  the  time,  but  it 
struck  me  then,  as  it  appears  to  me  now,  as  evincing 
originality  of  thought  and  an  indisposition  to  be  led  by 
the  example  of  others." 

This  originality  of  thought  and  love  of  experiment 
for  its  own  sake  were  to  be  chief  characteristics  of  the 
future  scientist. 

His  school  education  was  finished  when  he  was 
fifteen,  and  he  returned  home,  where  he  studied  French 
in  a  desultory  fashion,  and  devoted  most  of  his  time  to 
fishing,  of  which  he  was  always  very  fond.  His  father's 
death  made  him  realize  that  as  the  eldest  of  the  sons 
he  must  shoulder  the  responsibility  for  the  family's 


128  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

support,  and,  all  his  natural  tastes  lying  in  that  direction, 
he  decided  to  become  a  physician. 

A  practicing  surgeon  and  apothecary  of  Penzance, 
Bingham  Borlase,  was  willing  to  take  Davy  as  an  ap- 
prentice, and  the  youth  began  work  and  study  in  his 
office.  But  the  boy  was  no  ordinary  apprentice.  He 
became  almost  at  once  an  omnivorous  student  and 
writer.  He  laid  out  a  plan  of  study  that  included 
theology,  astronomy,  logic,  mathematics,  Latin,  Greek, 
Italian,  Spanish,  and  Hebrew,  and  he  wrote  essays, 
remarkably  mature  and  well-phrased,  in  a  series  of 
note-books  that  he  kept  in  the  office.  Poetry  he  wrote 
also,  filled  with  love  of  the  sea  that  circled  his  native 
Cornwall,  and  the  great  cliffs  and  moorlands  that  make 
that  part  of  England  one  of  the  most  picturesque  spots 
in  the  world. 

His  work  with  Mr.  Borlase  brought  him  into  the  field 
of  chemistry  when  he  was  nineteen.  It  was  a  field  of 
magic  to  him.  He  read  two  books,  Lavoisier's 
"Elements  of  Chemistry,"  and  Nicholson's  "Dictionary 
of  Chemistry,"  and  rushed  from  them  to  experiment 
for  himself.  His  bedroom  was  his  laboratory.  His 
tools  were  old  bottles,  glasses,  tobacco-pipes,  teacups, 
and  such  odds  and  ends  as  he  could  find.  When  he 
needed  fire  he  went  to  the  kitchen.  The  owner  of  the 
house,  Mr.  Tonkin,  was  an  old  friend  of  the  Davy 
family,  and  very  fond  of  Humphrey,  but  the  amateur 
experiments  were  almost  too  much  for  him.  Said  he, 
after  he  had  watched  some  more  than  usually  noisy 
combustion  at  the  fire,  "This  boy,  Humphrey,  is 
incorrigible.  Was  there  ever  so  idle  a  dog?  He 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  129 

will  blow  us  all  into  the  air."  But  Humphrey  minded 
no  arguments  nor  objections  ;  he  was  studying  the 
effects  of  acids  and  alkalies  on  vegetable  colors,  the 
kind  of  air  that  was  to  be  found  in  the  vesicles  of 
common  varieties  of  seaweed,  and  the  solution  and 
precipitation  of  metals.  The  work  was  all-engrossing  ; 
it  occupied  every  spare  moment  of  his  time  and 
thought. 

If  any  greater  stimulus  to  scientific  study  had  been 
needed  it  would  have  been  supplied  to  young  Davy  by 
his  acquaintance  with  Gregory  Watt,  the  son  of  the 
inventor  James  Watt.  Gregory  came  to  board  at  Mrs. 
Davy's  house  when  he  was  twenty-one,  and  Humphrey 
nineteen.  He  was  a  splendid  companion,  and  possessed 
of  a  remarkably  brilliant  mind.  In  a  short  time  the 
two  youths  had  become  inseparable  friends,  experiment- 
ing together,  and  taking  walks  to  the  mines  and 
quarries  in  the  neighborhood  of  Penzance  in  search  of 
minerals  for  study.  It  was  an  ideal  friendship,  in- 
comparably valuable  for  Davy.  But  Gregory  Watt 
died  when  he  was  twenty-eight.  "Gregory  was  a 
noble  fellow,"  Davy  wrote  to  a  friend,  "and  would 
have  been  a  great  man." 

In  the  meantime  the  young  physician's  apprentice 
had  been  lured  away  from  Penzance.  Dr.  Beddoes 
had  established  what  he  styled  a  Pneumatic  Institution 
at  Clifton,  the  object  of  which  was  to  try  the  medicinal 
effects  of  different  gases  on  consumptive  patients. 
Davy,  only  twenty,  had  been  offered  the  position  of 
director,  and  had  accepted.  His  old  friend  Mr.  Tonkin, 
who  had  thought  to  see  Humphrey  become  the  leading 


1 30  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

physician  of  Penzance,  was  so  much  put  out  with  this 
change  of  plan  that  he  altered  his  will  and  revoked  a 
legacy  he  had  intended  for  Davy. 

Filled  with  the  ardor  of  research  Davy  went  on  with 
his  experiments  at  Clifton.  He  discovered  silica  in  the 
epidermis  of  the  stems  of  weeds,  corn,  and  grasses. 
He  experimented  with  nitrous  oxide  (laughing  gas)  for 
ten  months  until  he  had  thoroughly  learned  its  in- 
toxicating effects.  Often  he  jeopardized  his  life,  and 
once  nearly  lost  it,  by  breathing  carburetted  hydrogen. 
He  published  the  results  of  his  more  important  experi- 
ments. When  he  was  twenty-one  he  issued  his 
"  Essays  on  Heat  and  Light."  He  experimented  with 
galvanic  electricity,  and  increased  the  powers  of  Volta's 
Galvanic  Pile.  Moreover  he  outlined  and  partly 
drafted  an  epic  poem  on  the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites 
from  Egypt.  The  total  is  a  surprising  catalogue  of 
industries  for  the  young  Clifton  Director. 

His  ardor  had  worn  him  out,  and  he  was  forced  to 
take  a  holiday  at  Penzance.  His  reputation  as  a  rising 
scientist  had  reached  the  little  Cornish  town,  and  he 
was  given  a  hearty  welcome.  He  loved  his  own 
country  and  never  lost  his  delight  in  her  natural 
beauties.  Nor  did  he  ever  forget  his  own  days  in  the 
grammar  school,  and  in  his  will  he  directed  that  a 
certain  sum  of  money  should  be  paid  to  the  master 
each  year  "  on  condition  that  the  boys  may  have  a 
holiday  on  his  birthday." 

Davy  had  already  made  influential  friends,  and  one 
of  them,  Dr.  Hope,  the  professor  of  chemistry  at  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  was  to  give  him  his  next  step 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  131 

forward.  Dr.  Hope  knew  Davy's  works  on  heat, 
nitrous  oxide,  and  galvanic  electricity,  and  he  recom- 
mended the  young  scientist  to  Count  Rumford  for  the 
professorship  of  chemistry  in  the  Royal  Philosophical 
Institution  in  London,  which  Count  Rumford  had  been 
instrumental  in  founding.  Davy  wrote  to  his  mother 
that  this  was  "  as  honorable  as  any  scientific  appoint- 
ment in  the  kingdom,  with  an  income  of  at  least  five 
hundred  pounds  a  year." 

He  went  to  London  in  1801,  and  there  he  had  the 
great  satisfaction  of  meeting  many  scientific  men  whose 
names  and  work  were  well  known  to  him.  Six  weeks 
after  he  arrived  he  began  his  first  course  of  lectures, 
taking  for  his  subject  the  history  of  galvanism,  and  the 
various  methods  of  accumulating  galvanic  influence. 
The  Philosophical  Magazine  said  of  the  new  lion,  "  The 
sensation  created  by  his  first  course  of  lectures  at  the 
Institution,  and  the  enthusiastic  admiration  which  they 
obtained,  is  at  this  period  hardly  to  be  imagined. 
Men  of  the  first  rank  and  talent, — the  literary  and  the 
scientific,  the  practical  and  the  theoretical, — blue-stock- 
ings and  women  of  fashion,  the  old  and  the  young,  all 
crowded,  eagerly  crowded,  the  lecture-room.  His 
youth,  his  simplicity,  his  natural  eloquence,  his  chem- 
ical knowledge,  his  happy  illustrations  and  well-con- 
ducted experiments,  excited  universal  attention  and 
unbounded  applause.  Compliments,  invitations,  and 
presents  were  showered  upon  him  in  abundance  from 
all  quarters  ;  his  society  was  courted  by  all,  and  all  ap- 
peared proud  of  his  acquaintance." 

Davy  was  an  eloquent,  enthusiastic,  forceful  speaker. 


i32  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

He  prepared  his  lectures  with  the  greatest  care,  and  he 
delivered  them  with  that  attention  to  dramatic  effect 
which  is  instinctive  in  all  really  great  speakers. 
Coleridge  said,  "  I  attend  Davy's  lectures  to  increase 
my  stock  of  metaphors,"  and  there  were  many  others 
who  went  to  hear  the  young  chemist  for  other  reasons 
than  a  liking  for  science.  He  had  his  own  theories  of 
the  arts  of  public  address.  "  Great  powers,"  said  he, 
"  have  never  been  exerted  independent  of  strong  feel- 
ings. The  rapid  arrangement  of  ideas  from  their 
various  analogies  to  the  equally  rapid  comparisons  of 
these  analogies,  with  facts  uniformly  occurring  during 
the  progress  of  discovery,  have  existed  only  in  those 
minds  where  the  agency  of  strong  and  various  motives 
is  perceived — of  motives  modifying  each  other,  mingling 
with  each  other,  and  producing  that  fever  of  emotion 
which  is  the  joy  of  existence  and  the  consciousness  of 
life." 

In  addition  to  his  lectures  Davy  worked  hard  in  the 
well-stocked  laboratory  of  the  Institution,  where  he  was 
supplied  with  a  corps  of  capable  assistants.  His  re- 
searches covered  a  very  large  part  of  the  field  of 
chemistry,  and  he  was  indefatigable  in  running  down 
any  new  idea  which  his  active  brain  chanced  to  hit 
upon.  In  his  vacations  from  London  he  went  to  the 
farthest  regions  of  the  British  Isles,  spending  consider- 
able time  in  the  north  of  Ireland  and  the  Hebrides. 
Here  he  studied  the  geological  structures,  and  collected 
all  the  information  he  could  in  regard  to  agriculture. 
Anything  to  do  with  natural  science  interested  him.  He 
sketched  a  great  deal,  and  he  was  forever  asking  ques- 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  133 

tions  of  all  the  countrymen  he  met.  His  questions 
made  him  famous  in  many  a  hamlet,  where  such  in- 
quisitiveness  had  never  been  known  before. 

Shortly  after  he  had  moved  to  London  he  had  been 
asked  to  investigate  astringent  plants  in  connection 
with  tanning.  To  this  end  he  visited  tan-yards  and 
farmers,  and  in  1802  began  to  deliver  a  course  of 
lectures  on  "  The  Connection  of  Chemistry  with  Vege- 
table Physiology."  These  lectures  proved  remarkably 
popular,  and  for  ten  years  he  repeated  them  at  the 
meetings  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  They  were  later 
published  in  book  form,  and  so  great  was  their  interest 
that  they  were  translated  into  almost  every  European 
language.  The  Edinburgh  Review,  that  dean  of 
British  critics,  said,  "  We  feel  grateful  for  his  having 
thus  suspended  for  a  time  the  labors  of  original  investi- 
gation, in  order  to  apply  the  principles  and  discoveries 
of  his  favorite  science  to  the  illustration  and  improve- 
ment of  an  art  which,  above  all  others,  ministers  to  the 
wants  and  comforts  of  man." 

When  his  agricultural  researches  were  finished  he 
went  back  to  his  studies  with  the  voltaic  pile  or  battery. 
He  discovered  that  potash  and  soda  can  be  decom- 
posed, with  the  resultant  metals  of  potassium  and 
sodium.  When  he  made  this  discovery  he  was  so  de- 
lighted that  he  danced  about  the  room,  and  was  too 
excited  to  finish  the  experiment  for  some  time. 

He  had  worked  too  hard,  and  soon  after  this  dis- 
covery he  fell  ill.  For  days  all  London  watched  for 
the  bulletins  of  the  young  chemist's  condition.  For- 
tunately he  recovered,  and  in  time  went  back  to  the 


134  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

work  which  was  proving  so  invaluable  for  the  world  of 
science. 

The  Royal  Institution  now  provided  him  with  a 
voltaic  battery  that  was  four  times  as  powerful  as  any 
that  had  previously  been  constructed.  With  this  he 
made  numberless  chemical  discoveries.  The  Royal 
Society  had  made  him  a  fellow  when  he  was  twenty- 
five  years  old,  and  one  of  its  secretaries  when  he  was 
twenty-nine.  His  London  lectures  grew  continually 
more  popular.  The  Dublin  Society  invited  him  to 
lecture  in  that  city,  and  his  course  at  once  attracted  the 
greatest  attention.  He  was  already  the  scientific  lion 
of  England,  but  withal  a  very  modest  and  unassuming 
lion.  Cuvier  said,  "  Davy,  not  yet  thirty-two,  in  the 
opinion  of  all  who  could  judge  of  such  labors,  held  the 
first  rank  among  the  chemists  of  this  or  of  any  other 
age."  The  National  Institute  of  France  awarded  him 
the  prize  that  had  been  established  by  Napoleon  for 
the  greatest  discovery  made  by  means  of  galvanism. 
Then,  in  1812,  when  he  was  thirty-three,  he  was 
knighted  by  the  Prince  Regent. 

Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  as  he  now  was,  married  Mrs. 
Appreece,  a  woman  of  many  talents  and  unusual  in- 
telligence. She  was  rich,  and  soon  after  their  marriage 
Davy  was  able  to  resign  his  professorship  at  the  Royal 
Institution,  which  he  had  held  for  twelve  years,  and 
devote  himself  to  original  research  and  to  travel. 
Carrying  a  portable  chemical  apparatus  for  his  studies, 
Sir  Humphrey  and  Lady  Davy  went  first  to  Scotland, 
and  then  to  France,  Italy,  and  Germany.  They  met 
the  most  prominent  men  of  the  age  in  those  countries. 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  135 

These  men  found  the  famous  chemist  interested  in 
everything  about  him,  as  much  of  a  poet  as  a  scientist. 
In  Rome  he  wrote  a  sonnet  to  the  sculptor  Canova,  and 
the  literary  circles  of  Italy  proclaimed  him  a  poet  after 
their  own  heart. 

Davy  was  now  one  of  the  foremost  chemists  of  the 
world,  but  he  could  as  yet  hardly  lay  claim  to  the  title 
of  inventor.  He  had  been  an  ambitious  man,  and  had 
once  said  that  he  had  escaped  the  temptations  that  lay 
in  wait  for  many  men  because  of  "  an  active  mind,  a 
deep  ideal  feeling  of  good,  and  a  look  toward  future 
greatness."  That  future  greatness  had  always  been  in 
his  thoughts,  and  had  been  one  of  the  compelling 
powers  in  his  great  chemical  discoveries.  But  beyond 
this  thought  of  greatness  was  a  very  deep  and  earnest 
desire  to  help  his  fellow  men.  So  when  the  chance  to 
do  this  offered  he  took  advantage  of  it  at  once. 

Explosions  of  coal-gas  were  only  too  common  in  the 
mines  of  England.  They  were  almost  always  fatal  to 
the  miners,  and  formed  the  greatest  peril  of  those  who 
labored  underground.  In  1812  a  terrible  explosion  oc- 
curred in  a  leading  English  mine,  and  caused  the  death 
of  almost  a  hundred  miners.  The  mine  had  caught  on 
fire,  and  had  to  be  closed  at  the  mouth,  which  meant 
certain  destruction  to  those  within.  The  catastrophe 
was  so  great  that  the  biggest  mine-owners  met  to  see 
whether  some  protection  against  such  accidents  could 
not  be  devised.  After  much  discussion  they  appointed 
a  committee  to  call  on  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  and  ask 
him  to  investigate  the  possibilities  for  them. 

Davy  realized  that  here  lay  his  opportunity  to  be  of 


1 36  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

real  service  to  men,  the  goal  he  had  always  had  in 
mind.  He  took  up  the  question,  experimented  with 
fire-damp,  and  found  that  it  was  in  reality  light  car- 
buretted  hydrogen.  He  visited  many  mines,  and  took 
into  careful  consideration  the  conditions  under  which 
the  men  worked.  For  months  he  investigated  and  ex- 
perimented, and  at  length,  in  1815,  he  constructed 
what  he  called  the  safety-lamp.  This  was  an  oil  lamp 
which  had  a  chimney  or  cage  of  wire  gauze.  The 
gauze  held  the  flame  of  the  lamp  from  passing  through 
and  igniting  the  fire-damp  outside.  It  was  only  pos- 
sible for  a  very  little  of  the  fire-damp  to  penetrate  the 
gauze  and  such  as  did  was  held  harmless  prisoner. 
The  cage  allowed  air  to  pass  and  light  to  escape,  and 
although  by  the  combustion  of  the  fire-damp  the  wire 
gauze  might  become  red  hot,  it  was  still  efficient  as  a 
safety-lamp. 

Davy's  safety-lamp  proved  exactly  what  was  needed 
to  act  as  protection  from  exploding  fire-damp.  It  was 
tried  under  all  conditions  and  served  admirably. 
George  Stephenson  had  worked  out  a  somewhat 
similar  safety-lamp  at  about  the  same  time,  and  his 
was  used  in  the  collieries  around  Newcastle.  In  the 
rest  of  England  Davy's  lamp  was  at  once  adopted.  All 
miners  were  equipped  with  either  the  Davy  lamp  or 
the  "  Geordie  "  lamp,  as  the  other  was  called,  and  the 
mine  fatalities  from  fire-damp  immediately  decreased. 
This  lamp  is  still  the  main  safeguard  of  those  who 
have  to  contend  with  dangerous  explosive  gases  in 
mines  all  over  the  world. 

Friends  urged  Davy  to  patent  his  lamp,  and  thus 


THE  DAVY  SAFETY  LAMP 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  137 

ensure  himself  a  very  considerable  income  from  its  sale. 
But  he  said,  "  I  never  thought  of  such  a  thing :  my 
sole  object  was  to  serve  the  cause  of  humanity ;  and  if 
I  have  succeeded,  I  am  amply  rewarded  in  the  gratify- 
ing reflection  of  having  done  so.  I  have  enough  for 
all  my  views  and  purposes ;  more  wealth  could  not  in- 
crease either  my  fame  or  my  happiness.  It  might  un- 
doubtedly enable  me  to  put  four  horses  to  my  carriage  ; 
but  what  would  it  avail  me  to  have  it  said  that  Sir 
Humphrey  drives  his  carriage  and  four  ?  " 

His  fellow  men  appreciated  the  great  value  of  this 
service  he  had  rendered.  At  Newcastle,  the  centre  of 
the  mining  country,  a  dinner  was  given  in  his  honor, 
and  a  service  of  plate,  worth  over  twelve  thousand 
dollars,  was  presented  to  him.  The  Emperor  of  Russia 
sent  him  a  magnificent  silver-gilt  vase,  with  a  letter 
congratulating  him  on  his  great  achievement,  and  the 
King  of  England  made  him  a  baronet. 

Davy  himself,  in  spite  of  his  reputation  as  a  chemist, 
placed  this  invention  above  all  his  other  work.  "I 
value  it  more  than  anything  I  ever  did,"  said  he.  "  It 
was  the  result  of  a  great  deal  of  investigation  and 
labor  ;  but  if  my  directions  be  attended  to,  it  will  save 
the  lives  of  thousands  of  poor  men.  I  was  never  more 
affected  than  by  a  written  address  which  I  received 
from  the  working  colliers  when  I  was  in  the  north, 
thanking  me  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  families 
for  the  preservation  of  their  lives." 

Davy's  note-books  are  most  interesting  reading  and 
show  the  philosophic  trend  of  his  thoughts.  At  one 
time  he  said,  "  Whoever  wishes  to  enjoy  peace,  and  is 


I38  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

gifted  with  great  talents,  must  labor  for  posterity.  In 
doing  this  he  enjoys  all  the  pleasures  of  intellectual 
labor,  and  all  the  desire  arising  from  protracted  hope. 
He  feels  no  envy  nor  jealousy ;  his  mark  is  too  far 
distant  to  be  seen  by  short-sighted  malevolence,  and 
therefore  it  is  never  aimed  at.  ...  To  raise  a 
chestnut  on  the  mountain,  or  a  palm  in  the  plain,  which 
may  afford  shade,  shelter,  and  fruit  for  generations  yet 
unborn,  and  which,  if  they  have  once  fixed  their  roots, 
require  no  culture,  is  better  than  to  raise  annual  flowers 
in  a  garden,  which  must  be  watered  daily,  and  in  which 
a  cold  wind  may  chill  or  too  ardent  a  sunshine  may 
dry.  .  .  .  The  best  faculties  of  man  are  employed 
for  futurity  :  speaking  is  better  than  acting,  writing  is 
better  than  speaking." 

He  was  fond  of  travel,  and  after  he  had  seen  the 
successful  use  of  his  lamp  he  went  abroad  again. 
When  he  returned  he  was  made  president  of  the  Royal 
Society,  a  position  which  had  been  made  illustrious  by 
Sir  Isaac  Newton.  The  British  navy  asked  him  to 
discover  what  could  be  done  to  prevent  the  corrosion 
of  copper  sheathing  on  vessels,  caused  by  salt  water. 
He  made  experiments,  and  at  last  succeeded  in  render- 
ing the  copper  negatively  electrical  by  the  use  of  small 
pieces  of  tin,  zinc,  or  iron  nails.  But  shells  and  sea- 
weed would  adhere  to  the  non-corroded  surface,  and 
hence  the  process  was  not  entirely  successful.  This 
principle  of  galvanic  protection,  however,  was  found  to 
be  applicable  to  many  other  purposes. 

These  and  other  experiments  in  chemistry  and 
electricity,  travel,  and  his  duties  as  president  of  the 


DAVY  AND  THE  SAFETY-LAMP  139 

Royal  Society  filled  his  days.  In  1826  he  was  attacked 
by  paralysis,  and  from  then  he  spent  much  of  his  time 
on  the  continent,  seeking  health  and  strength.  He 
wrote  on  fishing  and  on  travel,  and  all  his  writings,  on 
whatever  theme  he  touched,  are  filled  with  the  love  of 
nature  and  of  beauty,  and  permeated  with  that  philo- 
sophic balance  that  had  been  characteristic  of  his  whole 
career.  He  died  in  Geneva,  May  29,  1829. 

Davy  was  not  the  born  inventor,  drawn  irresistibly 
to  construct  something  new.  He  was  the  born  chem- 
ist, and  it  was  only  when  he  was  asked  to  investigate 
the  nature  of  the  fire-damp  that  he  fell  to  studying 
whether  some  adequate  protection  could  not  be  af- 
forded the  miners.  Yet  he  himself  said  that  he 
was  more  proud  of  his  safety-lamp  than  of  all  his 
other  discoveries,  and  although  the  scientists  and 
chemists  may  think  of  Humphrey  Davy  as  a  great  ex- 
perimenter, great  lecturer,  and  great  writer  on  chem- 
istry and  electricity,  the  world  at  large  knows  him  best 
for  his  safety-lamp  and  for  the  great  change  for  the 
better  he  was  able  to  bring  about  in  the  mines  of 
England. 


IX 

STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE 

1781-1848 

THE  need  of  finding  a  new  way  of  working  the 
coal  mines  of  England,  and  of  marketing  the  coal, 
which  had  been  such  an  important  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  steam-engine,  was  a  scarcely  less 
important  factor  in  the  building  of  the  earliest  prac- 
tical railway  locomotive.  The  coal  had  to  be  hauled 
from  the  pit  of  the  colliery  to  the  shipping  place.  It 
was  carried  in  cars  that  were  pushed  or  pulled  over 
a  rude  line  of  wooden  or  iron  rails.  But  it  was  evi- 
dent from  the  time  when  James  Watt  began  to  build 
his  steam-engines  to  lift  the  coal  from  the  mine  that 
men  of  inventive  minds  would  soon  seek  to  send  the 
cars  over  the  level  ground  by  the  same  power.  We 
owe  the  railroad  chiefly  to  the  needs  of  the  north  of 
England,  and  there  we  find  the  real  birth  of  the  loco- 
motive. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  a 
number  of  men  in  England  were  experimenting  with 
new  means'  of  locomotion,  both  for  merchandise  and 
for  passengers.  Their  projects  varied  from  cars  run- 
ning on  wheels  and  drawn  by  horses  to  carriages  pro- 
pelled by  small  stationary  steam-engines,  placed  at 
short  distances  from  each  other  along  the  road.  In 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     141 

1802  Richard  Trevethick,  a  captain  in  a  Cornish  tin- 
mine,  took  out  a  patent  for  a  steam-carriage.  The 
machine  he  built  looked  like  an  ordinary  stage-coach 
on  four  wheels.  It  had  one  horizontal  cylinder,  which 
was  placed  in  the  rear  of  the  hind  axle,  together  with 
the  boiler  and  the  furnace-box.  The  motion  of  the 
piston  was  carried  to  a  separate  crank-axle,  and  that 
in  turn  gave  the  motion  to  the  axle  of  the  driving- 
wheel.  This  was  in  itself  a  great  invention,  being 
the  first  really  successful  high-pressure  engine  that 
was  built  on  the  principle  of  moving  a  piston  by  the 
elasticity  of  steam  against  only  the  pressure  of  the 
air.  The  steam  was  admitted  from  the  boiler  under 
the  piston  that  moved  in  a  cylinder,  and  forced  it  up- 
ward. When  the  motion  had  reached  its  limit,  the 
communication  between  the  piston  and  the  under  side 
of  the  cylinder  was  shut  off,  and  the  steam  escaped 
into  the  atmosphere.  Then  a  passage  was  opened 
between  the  boiler  and  the  upper  end  of  the  piston, 
which  was  consequently  pushed  downward,  and  then 
the  steam  was  again  allowed  to  escape.  As  a  result 
the  power  of  the  engine  was  equal  to  the  difference 
between  the  atmosphere's  pressure  and  the  elastic  force 
of  the  steam  in  the  boiler. 

This  steam-carriage  of  Trevethick  was  fairly  suc- 
cessful, and  created  a  great  sensation  in  that  part  of 
Cornwall  where  it  was  built.  He  decided  to  take  it 
to  London,  and  drove  it  himself  to  Plymouth,  from 
which  port  it  was  to  be  carried  by  sea.  On  the  road 
it  caused  amazement  and  consternation,  and  won  the 
name  of  Captain  Trevethick's  dragon.  He  exhibited 


I42  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

it  in  London,  but  after  a  short  time  gave  up  driving  it, 
believing  that  the  roads  of  England  were  too  badly 
built  to  make  the  use  of  a  steam-carriage  feasible. 

Other  men  were  working  on  similar  lines.  Among 
them  was  the  owner  of  a  colliery  in  the  north  named 
Blackett,  who  built  a  number  of  engines  for  propelling 
coal-cars  and  used  them  at  his  mines.  But  these  were 
very  clumsy  and  heavy,  moved  slowly,  and  had  to  be 
continually  repaired  at  considerable  expense,  so  that 
other  miners,  after  examining  Blackett's  engines,  de- 
cided they  were  not  worth  the  cost  of  manufacture. 
To  make  the  steam-carriage  really  serviceable  it  must 
be  more  efficient  and  reliable. 

Meantime  a  young  man  named  George  Stephenson, 
who  was  working  at  a  coal  mine  at  Killingworth, 
seven  miles  north  of  Newcastle,  was  studying  out  a 
new  plan  of  locomotive.  His  father  had  been  a  fire- 
man in  a  colliery  at  Wylam,  a  village  near  Newcastle, 
and  there  the  son  George  was  born  on  June  9,  1781. 
He  had  lived  the  life  of  the  other  boys  of  the  village, 
had  been  a  herd-boy  to  care  for  a  neighbor's  cows, 
had  been  a  "  picker "  in  the  colliery,  and  separated 
stones  and  dross  from  the  coal,  had  risen  to  assistant 
fireman,  then  fireman,  then  engineman.  He  was  strong 
and  vigorous,  fond  of  outdoor  sports,  and  also  con- 
siderable of  a  student.  In  time  he  moved  to  Willing- 
ton  Quay,  a  village  on  the  River  Tyne,  where  coal 
was  shipped  to  London.  Here  he  married,  and  made 
his  home  in  a  small  cottage  near  the  quay.  He  was 
in  charge  of  a  fixed  engine  on  Willington  Ballast  Hill 
that  drew  the  trains  of  laden  coal-cars  up  the  incline. 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     143 

After  he  had  worked  for  three  years  at  Willington 
he  was  induced  to  take  the  position  of  brakesman  of 
the  engine  at  the  West  Moor  Colliery  at  Killingworth. 
He  had  only  been  settled  in  his  new  place  a  short 
time  when  his  wife  died,  leaving  him  with  a  son  Rob- 
ert. Stephenson  thenceforth  threw  himself  into  his 
work  harder  than  ever,  studying  with  his  son  as  the 
boy  grew  older,  and  spending  a  great  deal  of  time 
over  his  plans  for  a  steam-engine  that  should  move 
the  coal-cars.  He  knew  the  needs  of  the  colliery  per- 
fectly, had  acquired  a  good  knowledge  of  mechanics, 
and  proposed  to  put  his  knowledge  to  account. 

He  had  already,  as  engine-wright  of  the  Killing- 
worth  Colliery,  applied  the  surplus  power  of  a  pump- 
ing steam-engine  to  the  work  of  drawing  coal  from  the 
deeper  workings  of  the  mine,  thereby  saving  a  great 
amount  of  manual  and  horse  labor.  When  the  coal 
was  drawn  up  it  had  to  be  transported  to  the  quays 
along  the  Tyne,  and  to  simplify  this  Stephenson  laid 
down  inclined  planes  so  that  a  train  of  full  wagons 
moving  down  the  incline  was  able  to  draw  up  another 
train  of  empty  wagons.  But  this  would  only  work  over 
a  short  distance,  and  was  in  itself  a  small  saving  in  ef- 
fort. 

The  engines  that  Mr.  Blackett  had  built,  using 
Trevethick's  model  as  a  basis,  were  working  daily  near 
the  Killingworth  Colliery,  and  Stephenson  frequently 
went  over  to  see  them.  He  studied  Mr.  Blackett's  latest 
locomotive,  nicknamed  "  Black  Billy,"  with  the  greatest 
care,  and  then  told  his  friend  Jonathan  Foster  that  he 
was  convinced  that  he  could  build  a  better  engine  than 


I44  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Trevethick's,  one  that  would  work  more  effectively  and 
cheaply  and  draw  a  train  of  cars  more  steadily. 

He  also  had  the  advantage  of  seeing  other  primitive 
locomotives  that  were  being  tried  at  different  places 
near  Newcastle.  One  of  these,  known  as  Blenkinsop's 
Leeds  engine,  ran  on  a  tramway,  and  would  draw  six- 
teen wagons  with  a  weight  of  seventy  tons  at  the  rate 
of  about  three  miles  an  hour.  But  the  Blenkinsop 
engine  was  found  to  be  very  unsteady,  and  tore  up  the 
tram-rails,  and  when  its  boiler  blew  up  the  owner  de- 
cided that  the  engine  was  not  worth  the  cost  of  repair. 
Stephenson,  however,  drew  some  useful  points  from  it, 
as  well  as  from  each  of  the  other  models  he  saw,  and 
proposed  to  himself  to  follow  Watt's  example  in  con- 
structing his  steam-engine,  namely,  to  combine  the 
plans  and  discoveries  of  other  inventors  in  a  machine 
of  his  own,  and  so  achieve  a  more  complete  success. 

Stephenson  was  now  very  well  regarded  at  the  colliery 
for  the  improvements  he  had  made  there.  He  brought 
the  matter  of  building  a  new  "  Traveling  Engine,"  as 
he  called  it,  to  the  attention  of  the  lessees  of  the  mine 
in  1813.  Lord  Ravensworth,  the  principal  partner, 
formed  a  favorable  opinion  of  Stephenson' s  plans,  and 
agreed  to  supply  him  with  the  funds  necessary  to  build 
a  locomotive. 

With  his  support  Stephenson  went  to  work  to  choose 
his  tools  and  workmen.  He  had  to  devise  and  make 
many  of  the  tools  he  needed,  and  to  train  his  men  spe- 
cially for  this  business.  He  built  his  first  engine  in  the 
workshops  at  the  West  Moor  Mine.  It  followed  to 
some  extent  the  model  of  Blenkinsop's  engine.  It  had 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     145 

a  cylindrical  boiler,  eight  feet  long  and  thirty-four 
inches  in  diameter,  with  an  internal  flue  tube  passing 
through  it.  The  engine  had  two  vertical  cylinders  and 
worked  the  propelling  gear  with  cross-heads  and  con- 
necting-rods. The  power  of  the  two  cylinders  was 
carried  by  means  of  spur-wheels,  which  continued  the 
motive  power  to  the  wheels  that  supported  the  engine 
on  the  rails.  The  engine  was  simply  mounted  on  a 
wooden  frame  that  was  supported  on  four  wheels. 
These  wheels  were  smooth,  as  Stephenson  was  con- 
vinced that  smooth  wheels  would  run  properly  on  an 
edge-rail. 

This  engine,  christened  the  "  Blutcher,"  and  taking 
about  ten  months  to  build,  was  tried  on  the  Killing- 
worth  Railway  on  July  25,  1814.  It  proved  to  be  the 
most  successful  working  engine  that  had  yet  been  built, 
and  would  pull  eight  loaded  wagons  of  about  thirty 
tons'  weight  up  a  slight  grade  at  the  rate  of  four  miles 
an  hour.  For  some  time  it  was  used  daily  at  the  col- 
liery. 

But  the  "  Blutcher  "  was  after  all  a  very  clumsy  ma- 
chine. The  engine  had  no  springs,  and  its  movement 
was  a  series  of  jolts,  that  injured  the  rails  and  shook 
the  machinery  apart.  The  important  parts  of  the  ma- 
chinery were  huddled  together,  and  caused  friction,  and 
the  cog-wheels  soon  became  badly  worn.  Moreover 
the  engine  moved  scarcely  faster  than  a  horse's  walk, 
and  the  expense  of  running  it  was  very  little  less  than 
the  cost  of  horse-power.  Stephenson  saw  that  he  must 
in  some  way  increase  the  power  of  his  engine  if  he  was 
to  provide  a  new  motive  power  for  the  mines. 


146  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

In  this  first  engine  the  steam  had  been  allowed  to  es- 
cape into  the  air  with  a  loud,  hissing  noise,  which 
frightened  horses  and  cattle,  and  was  generally  re- 
garded as  a  nuisance.  Stephenson  thought  that  if  he 
could  carry  this  steam,  after  it  had  done  its  work  in  the 
cylinders,  into  the  chimney  by  means  of  a  small  pipe, 
and  allow  it  to  escape  in  a  vertical  direction,  its  velocity 
would  be  added  to  the  smoke  from  the  fire,  or  the  ris- 
ing current  of  air  in  the  chimney,  and  would  in  that 
way  increase  the  draught,  and  as  a  result  the  intensity 
of  combustion  in  the  furnace.  He  tried  this  experi- 
ment, and  found  his  conjecture  correct ;  the  blast  stimu- 
lated combustion,  consequently  the  capability  of  the 
boiler  to  generate  steam  was  greatly  increased,  and  the 
power  of  the  engine  increased  in  the  same  proportion. 
No  extra  weight  was  added  to  the  machine.  The  in- 
vention of  this  steam  blast  was  almost  the  turning 
point  in  the  history  of  the  locomotive.  Without  it  the 
engine  would  have  been  too  clumsy  and  slow  for  prac- 
tical use,  but  with  it  the  greatest  possibilities  of  use 
appeared. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  his  steam  blast  Ste- 
phenson started  to  build  a  second  locomotive.  In  this  he 
planned  an  entire  change  in  mechanical  construction, 
his  principal  objects  being  the  use  of  as  few  parts  as 
possible,  and  the  most  direct  possible  application  of 
power  to  the  wheels.  He  took  out  a  patent  for  this 
engine  on  February  28,  1815.  This  locomotive  had 
two  vertical  cylinders  that  communicated  directly  with 
each  pair  of  the  four  wheels  that  supported  the  engine, 
by  means  of  a  cross-head  and  a  pair  of  connecting- 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     147 

rods.  "  Ball  and  socket  "  joints  were  used  to  make  the 
union  between  the  ends  of  the  cross-heads  where  they 
united  with  the  connecting-rods,  and  between  the  rods 
and  the  crank-pins  attached  to  each  driving-wheel.  The 
mechanical  skill  of  his  workmen  was  not  equal  to  the 
forging  of  all  the  necessary  parts  as  Stephenson  had 
devised  them,  and  he  was  obliged  to  make  use  of  sub- 
stitutes which  did  not  always  work  smoothly,  but  he 
finally  succeeded  in  completing  a  locomotive  which  was 
a  vast  improvement  on  all  earlier  ones,  and  that  was 
notable  for  the  simple  and  direct  communication  be- 
tween the  cylinders  and  the  wheels,  and  the  added 
power  gained  by  using  the  waste  steam  in  the  steam  blast. 
This  second  locomotive  of  Stephenson's  was  in  the  main 
the  model  for  all  those  built  for  a  considerable  time. 

During  the  time  when  Stephenson  was  working  on 
his  second  locomotive  explosions  of  fire-damp  were  un- 
usually frequent  in  the  coal  mines  of  Northumberland 
and  Durham,  and  for  a  space  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  possibility  of  inventing  some  pattern  of  safety-lamp. 
The  result  was  his  perfection  of  a  lamp  that  would  fur- 
nish the  miners  with  sufficient  light  and  yet  preclude 
risk  of  exploding  fire-damp.  This  came  to  be  known 
as  the  "  Geordie  Lamp,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
"  Davy  Lamp  "  that  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  was  invent- 
ing at  about  the  same  time.  The  lamp  was  used 
successfully  by  the  miners  at  Killingworth,  and  was  con- 
sidered by  many  as  superior  to  Davy's  lamp.  Dis- 
putes arose  as  to  which  was  invented  first,  and  long 
controversies  between  scientific  societies,  most  of  which 
sided  with  the  friends  of  Davy.  Stephenson  himself 


i48  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

stated  his  claims  firmly,  but  without  rancor,  and  when 
he  saw  that  it  prevented  the  accidents  in  mines  was 
satisfied  that  he  had  gained  his  object,  and  returned  to 
the  more  absorbing  subject  of  locomotives. 

He  realized  that  the  road  and  the  rails  were  almost 
as  important  as  the  engine  itself.  At  that  time  the  rail- 
ways were  laid  in  the  most  careless  fashion,  little  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  rails'  proper  joining,  and  less  to 
the  grades  of  the  roads.  Stephenson  laid  down  new 
rails  at  Killingworth  with  "  half-lap  joints,"  or  extend- 
ing over  each  other  for  a  certain  distance  at  the  ends, 
instead  of  the  "butt  joints"  that  were  formerly  used. 
Over  these  both  the  coal-cars  drawn  by  horses  and  his 
locomotive  ran  much  more  smoothly.  To  increase  this 
smoothness  of  travel  he  added  a  system  of  spring  car- 
riage to  his  engine,  and  saved  it  from  the  jolting  that 
had  handicapped  his  first  model. 

The  second  locomotive  was  proving  so  efficient  at 
the  Killingworth  Colliery  that  friends  of  the  inventor 
urged  him  to  look  into  the  possible  use  of  steam  in 
traveling  on  the  common  roads.  To  study  this  he 
made  an  instrument  called  the  dynamometer,  which 
enabled  him  to  calculate  the  resistance  of  friction  to 
which  carriages  would  be  exposed  on  railways.  His 
experiments  made  him  doubtful  of  the  possibility  of 
running  such  railroads,  unless  a  great  amount  of  very 
expensive  tunneling  and  grading  were  first  done. 

All  this  time  George  Stephenson  continued  to  study 
with  his  son  Robert.  The  boy  was  employed  at  the 
colliery,  and  was  rapidly  learning  the  business  under 
the  skilful  charge  of  his  father.  Stephenson  had  de- 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     149 

cided  however  that  Robert  should  have  a  better  educa- 
tion than  had  been  his,  and  in  1820  took  him  from  his 
post  as  viewer  in  the  West  Moor  Pit,  and  sent  him  to 
the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

News  spread  slowly  in  England  in  that  day,  and  the 
fact  that  a  steam  locomotive  was  being  successfully 
used  at  Killingworth  attracted  very  little  attention  in 
the  rest  of  the  country.  Even  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  mines  people  soon  grew  used  to  seeing  "  Puffing 
Billy,"  as  the  engine  was  called,  traveling  back  and 
forth  from  the  pit  to  the  quay,  and  took  it  quite  for 
granted.  Here  and  there  scattered  scientific  men,  ever 
since  Watt's  perfection  of  the  steam-engine,  had  con- 
sidered the  possibility  of  travel  by  steam,  but  practical 
business  men  had  failed  to  come  forward  to  build  a 
railway  line.  At  length,  however,  Edward  Pease,  of 
Darlington,  planned  a  road  to  run  from  Stockton  to 
Darlington,  and  set  about  building  it.  He  had  a  great 
deal  of  difficulty  in  forming  a  company  to  finance  it, 
but  he  was  a  man  of  much  perseverance,  and  at  length 
he  succeeded.  While  he  was  doing  this  Stephenson 
was  patiently  building  new  locomotives,  and  trying  to 
induce  the  mine-owners  along  the  Tyne  to  replace  their 
horse-cars  with  his  engines.  In  1819  the  owners  of 
the  Hetton  Colliery  decided  to  make  this  change,  and 
asked  Stephenson  to  take  charge  of  the  construction  of 
their  line.  He  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Killingworth 
owners,  and  began  work.  On  November  18,  1822,  the 
Hetton  Railway  was  opened.  Its  length  was  about 
eight  miles,  and  five  of  Stephenson's  locomotives  were 
working  on  it,  under  the  direction  of  his  brother 


I5o  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Robert.  In  building  this  line  George  Stephenson  was 
thoroughly  practical.  Although  he  knew  that  his  name 
was  becoming  more  and  more  identified  with  the 
locomotive  engine,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  use  stationary 
engines  wherever  he  considered  that  they  would  be 
more  economical.  In  the  Hetton  Railway,  which  ran 
for  a  part  of  its  distance  through  rough  country,  he 
used  stationary  engines  wherever  he  could  not  secure 
grades  that  would  make  locomotives  practicable.  His 
own  steam-engines  traveled  over  this  line  at  the  rate 
of  about  four  miles  an  hour,  and  each  was  able  to  draw 
a  train  of  seventeen  coal  wagons,  weighing  about  sixty- 
four  tons. 

The  coal  mines  of  the  Midlands  and  the  north  of 
England  had  been  the  original  inducement  to  invent- 
ors to  build  engines  that  would  draw  cars,  and  the 
manufacturing  needs  of  Manchester  and  Liverpool 
were  now  gradually  inducing  promoters  to  consider 
building  railroads.  The  growth  of  Manchester  and  the 
towns  close  to  it  was  tremendous,  the  cotton  traffic 
between  Manchester  and  Liverpool  had  jumped  to 
enormous  figures,  and  men  felt  that  some  new  method 
of  communication  must  be  found.  Robert  Fulton's 
friend,  the  Duke  of  Bridge  water,  had  been  of  some 
help  with  his  canal  system,  but  the  trade  quickly  out- 
stripped this  service.  Then  William  James,  a  man  of 
wealth  and  influence,  a  large  landowner  and  coal- 
operator,  took  up  the  subject  of  a  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway  with  some  business  friends,  and  had  a 
survey  of  such  a  line  begun.  His  men  met  with  every 
possible  resistance  from  the  country  people,  who  had 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     151 

no  wish  to  have  "  Puffing  Billys  "  racing  through  their 
fields ;  bogs  had  to  be  crossed  and  hills  leveled ;  and 
it  soon  appeared  that  the  cost  of  a  road  would  be  very 
expensive.  The  local  authorities  gave  James  and  his 
associates  some  encouragement,  but  those  members  of 
Parliament  he  approached  were  more  or  less  opposed 
to  his  plans.  The  time  was  not  yet  quite  ripe  for  the 
road,  but  the  needs  of  trade  were  growing  more  and 
more  pressing. 

Meantime  Mr.  Pease  was  again  growing  eager  to 
build  his  Darlington  and  Stockton  line.  Near  the  end 
of  the  year  1821  two  men  called  at  his  house.  One  in- 
troduced himself  as  Nicholas  Wood,  viewer  at  Killing- 
worth,  and  then  presented  his  companion,  George 
Stephenson,  of  the  same  place.  Stephenson  had  letters 
to  Mr.  Pease,  and  after  a  talk  with  him,  persuaded  him  to 
go  to  the  Killingworth  Colliery  and  see  his  locomotives. 
Pease  was  much  impressed  with  the  engines  he  saw 
there,  and  even  more  with  Stephenson's  ability  as  a 
practical  engineer.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that 
Pease  reported  the  results  of  his  visit  to  the  directors  of 
his  company,  and  they  authorized  him  to  secure 
Stephenson's  services  in  surveying  the  line  they  wished 
to  build.  He  took  up  the  work,  made  careful  surveys 
and  reports,  and  was  finally  directed  to  build  a  railway 
according  to  his  own  plans.  This  he  did,  working 
with  the  best  corps  of  assistants  and  the  most  efficient 
materials  he  could  find.  When  the  line  was  nearly 
completed  he  made  a  tour  of  inspection  over  it  with  his 
son  and  a  young  man  named  John  Dixon.  Dixon 
later  recalled  that  Stephenson  said  to  the  two  as  they 


152  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

came  to  the  end  of  their  trip,  "  Now,  lads,  I  will  tell  you 
that  I  think  you  will  live  to  see  the  day,  though  I  may 
not  live  so  long,  when  railways  will  come  to  supersede 
almost  all  other  methods  of  conveyance  in  this  country 
— when  mail  coaches  will  go  by  railway,  and  railroads 
will  become  the  Great  Highway  for  the  king  and  all 
his  subjects.  The  time  is  coming  when  it  will  be 
cheaper  for  a  working  man  to  travel  on  a  railway  than 
to  walk  on  foot.  I  know  there  are  great  and  almost  in- 
surmountable difficulties  that  will  have  to  be  en- 
countered ;  but  what  I  have  said  will  come  to  pass  as 
sure  as  we  live." 

In  spite  of  the  powerful  opposition  that  the  company 
encountered,  and  the  threats  of  the  road  trustees  and 
others,  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  line  was  opened 
for  travel  on  September  27,  1825.  A  great  concourse  of 
people  had  gathered  to  see  the  opening  of  this  first  pub- 
lic railway.  Everything  went  well.  Stephenson  himself 
drove  the  engine,  and  the  train  consisted  of  six  wagons, 
loaded  with  coal  and  flour,  then  a  special  passenger 
coach,  filled  with  the  directors  and  their  friends,  then 
twenty-one  wagons  temporarily  fitted  with  seats  for 
passengers,  and  then  six  wagons  of  coal,  making 
thirty-four  carriages  in  all.  A  contemporary  writer 
says,  "The  signal  being  given  the  engine  started  off 
with  this  immense  train  of  carriages  ;  and  such  was  its 
velocity,  that  in  some  parts  the  speed  was  frequently 
twelve  miles  an  hour ;  and  at  that  time  the  number  of 
passengers  was  counted  to  be  four  hundred  and  fifty, 
which,  together  with  the  coals,  merchandise,  and  car- 
riages, ^vould  amount  to  near  ninety  tons.  The  engine, 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     153 

with  its  load,  arrived  at  Darlington,  a  distance  of  eight 
and  three-quarter  miles,  in  sixty-five  minutes.  The  six 
wagons  loaded  with  coals,  intended  for  Darlington, 
were  then  left  behind  ;  and,  obtaining  a  fresh  supply  of 
water  and  arranging  the  procession  to  accommodate  a 
band  of  music,  and  numerous  passengers  from  Darling- 
ton, the  engine  set  off  again,  and  arrived  at  Stockton  in 
three  hours  and  seven  minutes,  including  stoppages, 
the  distance  being  nearly  twelve  miles."  By  the  time 
the  train  reached  Stockton  there  were  about  six  hundred 
people  riding  in  the  cars  or  hanging  on  to  them,  and 
the  train  traveled  on  a  steady  average  of  four  to  six 
miles  an  hour  from  Darlington. 

This  road  was  primarily  built  to  transport  freight, 
and  passengers  were  in  reality  an  afterthought.  But 
the  directors  decided  to  try  a  passenger  coach,  and  ac- 
cordingly Stephenson  built  one.  It  was  an  uncouth 
carriage,  looking  something  like  a  caravan  used  at  a 
country  fair.  The  doors  were  at  the  ends,  a  row  of 
seats  ran  along  each  side  of  the  interior,  and  a  long 
deal  table  extended  down  the  centre.  Stephenson 
called  this  coach  the  "  Experiment,"  and  in  a  short  time 
it  had  become  the  most  popular  means  of  travel  be- 
tween Stockton  and  Darlington. 

With  the' Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  an  assured 
and  successful  fact,  the  men  who  had  been  interested  in 
building  a  line  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
earlier  took  up  the  subject  again.  Some  improvement 
in  the  means  of  communication  between  the  two  cities 
was  more  needed  than  ever.  The  three  canals  and  the 
turnpike  road  were  often  so  crowded  that  traffic  was 


I54  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

held  up  for  days  and  even  weeks.  In  addition  the 
canal  charges  were  excessive.  On  the  other  hand 
the  railway  builders  had  to  meet  the  opposition  of 
the  powerful  canal  companies  and  landowners  along  the 
line  they  wished  to  open,  and  it  took  time  and  inge- 
nuity to  accomplish  working  adjustments. 

The  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  bill  came  up 
for  consideration  in  the  House  of  Commons  early  in 
1825.  A  determined  stand  was  made  against  it,  and 
the  promoters  and  their  engineers,  chief  among  whom 
was  Stephenson,  had  to  be  very  modest  in  their  claims. 
Stephenson  had  said  to  friends  that  he  was  confident 
that  locomotives  could  be  built  that  would  carry  a  train 
of  cars  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour,  but  such  a 
claim  would  have  been  received  by  the  public  as  ridicu- 
lous, and  the  engineer  laughed  to  scorn.  His  oppo- 
nents tried  to  badger  him  in  every  way  they  could,  and 
ridicule  even  his  modest  statements.  "  Suppose  now," 
said  one  of  the  members  of  Parliament  in  questioning 
him,  "  one  of  these  engines  to  be  going  along  a  railroad 
at  the  rate  of  nine  or  ten  miles  an  hour,  and  that  a  cow 
were  to  stray  upon  the  line  and  get  in  the  way  of  the 
engine;  would  not  that  be  a  very  awkward  circum- 
stance?" "Yes,"  answered  Stephenson,  with  a  twin- 
kling eye,  "  very  awkward— -for  the  coo  !  " 

In  fact  very  few  of  the  members  understood  Stephen- 
son's  invention  at  all.  A  distinguished  barrister  repre- 
sented about  the  general  level  of  ignorance  when  he 
said  in  a  speech,  "  Any  gale  of  wind  which  would  affect 
the  traffic  on  the  Mersey  would  render  it  impossible  to 
set  off  a  locomotive  engine,  either  by  poking  the  fire,  or 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     155 

keeping  up  the  pressure  of  the  steam  till  the  boiler  was 
ready  to  burst."  Against  such  opposition  it  was  not 
surprising  that  the  bill  failed  of  passage  that  year. 

But  the  necessities  of  commerce  could  not  be  denied, 
and  the  following  year  the  bill  came  up  again,  and  was 
passed.  Stephenson,  as  principal  engineer  of  the  rail- 
way, at  once  began  its  building.  This  in  itself  was  a 
unique  and  very  remarkable  feat.  An  immense  bog, 
called  Chat  Moss,  had  to  be  crossed,  and  Stephenson 
was  the  only  one  of  the  engineers  concerned  who  did 
not  doubt  whether  such  a  crossing  were  really  possible. 
Ditches  that  were  dug  to  drain  the  bog  immediately 
filled  up ;  as  soon  as  one  part  was  dug  out  the  bog  flowed 
in  again ;  it  swelled  rapidly  in  rainy  weather,  and  piles 
driven  into  it  would  sink  down  into  the  mire.  But 
Stephenson  finally  built  his  road  across  it.  A  matting 
of  heath  and  the  branches  of  trees  was  laid  on  the  bog's 
surface,  and  in  some  places  hurdles  interwoven  with 
heather ;  this  floating  bed  was  covered  over  with  a  few 
inches  of  gravel,  and  on  this  the  road  proper  was  con- 
structed. In  addition  to  the  crossing  of  Chat  Moss  a 
tunnel  of  a  mile  and  a  half  had  to  be  cut  under  part  of 
Liverpool,  and  in  several  places  hills  had  to  be  leveled 
or  cut  through.  The  old  post-roads  had  never  had  to 
solve  such  problems,  and  George  Stephenson  deserves 
to  rank  as  high  as  a  pioneer  of  railroad  construction  as 
he  does  as  builder  of  the  working  locomotive. 

The  directors  of  the  railway  were  anxious  to  secure 
the  best  engine  possible,  and  opened  a  general  compe- 
tition, naming  certain  conditions  the  engine  must  fulfil. 
Stephenson  and  Henry  Booth  built  the  "  Rocket,"  and, 


156  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

as  this  was  the  only  engine  that  fulfilled  all  the  condi- 
tions, took  the  prize.  The  "Rocket"  was  by  far  the 
most  perfect  locomotive  yet  built,  having  many  new 
improvements  that  Stephenson  had  recently  worked  out. 

The  "Rocket"  would  make  thirty  miles  an  hour,  a 
wonderful  achievement,  and  was  put  to  work  drawing 
the  gravel  that  was  used  in  building  the  permanent 
road  across  Chat  Moss.  With  the  aid  of  such  a  pow- 
erful engine  the  work  went  on  more  rapidly,  and  in 
June,  1830,  a  trial  trip  was  made  from  Liverpool  to 
Manchester  and  back.  There  was  a  huge  gathering 
at  the  stations  at  each  end  of  the  line.  The  train  was 
made  up  of  two  carriages,  filled  with  about  forty  pas- 
sengers, and  seven  wagons  loaded  with  stores.  The 
"  Rocket "  drew  this  train  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester 
in  two  hours  and  one  minute,  and  made  the  return  trip 
in  an  hour  and  a  half.  It  crossed  Chat  Moss  at  the 
rate  of  about  twenty-seven  miles  an  hour. 

The  public  opening  of  the  new  road  occurred  on 
September  15,  1830.  By  that  time  Stephenson  had 
built  eight  locomotives,  and  they  were  all  ready  for 
service.  Much  of  the  opposition  of  the  general  public 
had  been  overcome,  and  the  opening  was  considered  a 
great  national  event.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  then 
Prime  Minister,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  many  other  prom- 
inent men  were  present.  George  Stephenson  drove 
the  first  engine,  the  "  Northumbrian,"  and  was  followed 
by  seven  other  locomotives  and  trains,  carrying  about 
600  passengers.  Stephenson's  son  drove  the  second 
engine,  and  his  brother  the  third.  They  started  from 
Liverpool,  and  the  people  massed  along  the  line 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     157 

cheered  and  cheered  again  as  they  saw  the  eight  trains 
speed  along  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  miles  an  hour. 

Unfortunately  an  accident  occurred  about  seventeen 
miles  out  of  Liverpool.  The  first  engine,  with  the  car- 
riage containing  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  had  been 
stopped  on  a  siding  so  that  the  Duke  might  review  the 
other  trains.  Mr.  Huskisson,  one  of  the  members  of 
Parliament  for  Liverpool,  and  a  warm  friend  and  sup- 
porter of  Stephenson  and  the  railroad,  had  stepped 
from  his  coach,  and  was  standing  on  the  railway.  The 
Duke  called  to  him,  and  he  crossed  over  to  shake 
hands.  As  they  grasped  hands  the  bystanders  began 
to  cry,  "  Get  in,  get  in  ! "  Confused,  Mr.  Huskisson 
tried  to  go  around  the  open  door  of  the  carriage,  which 
projected  over  the  opposite  rail.  As  he  did  so  he  was 
hit  by  the  "  Rocket,"  an  engine  coming  up  on  the  other 
track,  was  knocked  down,  and  had  one  leg  crushed. 
That  same  night  he  died  in  the  near-by  parsonage  of 
Eccles.  This  first  serious  railway  accident,  occurring 
at  the  very  opening  of  the  line,  cast  a  gloom  over  the 
event.  It  revealed  something  of  the  danger  coincident 
with  the  new  invention.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  both  expressed  a  wish  that  the  trains 
should  return  to  Liverpool,  but  when  it  was  pointed  out 
that  a  great  many  people  had  gathered  from  all  the 
neighboring  country  at  Manchester,  and  that  to  aban- 
don the  opening  would  jeopardize  the  whole  future 
success  of  the  road,  they  agreed  to  go  on.  The  jour- 
ney was  completed  without  any  further  mishap,  and 
the  people  of  Manchester  gave  the  eight  trains  a  warm 
welcome. 


158  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

With  the  opening  of  this  line  the  success  of  the  rail- 
road as  a  practical  means  of  conveyance  became  as- 
sured. ^Singularly  enough  the  builders  of  the  railroad 
had  based  their  estimates  almost  entirely  on  merchan- 
dise traffic,  and  had  stated  to  the  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  that  they  did  not  expect  their  pas- 
senger coaches  to  be  more  than  half  filled.  The  car- 
riages they  planned  to  use  would  have  carried  400  to 
500  persons  if  full,  but  the  road  was  hardly  open  before 
the  company  had  to  provide  accommodations  to  carry 
1,200  passengers  daily,  and  the  receipts  from  passenger 
travel  immediately  far  exceeded  the  receipts  from  car- 
rying freight. 

Similarly  the  directors  had  expected  that  the  average 
speed  of  the  locomotives  would  be  about  nine  or  ten 
miles  an  hour,  but  very  soon  the  trains  were  carrying 
passengers  the  entire  thirty  miles  between  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  in  a  little  more  than  an  hour.  Travel 
by  stage-coach  had  taken  at  least  four  hours,  so 
that  the  railroad  reduced  the  time  nearly  one-fourth. 
Engineers  who  came  from  a  distance  to  examine  the 
railroad  were  amazed  at  the  smoothness  of  travel  over 
it.  Two  experts  from  Edinburgh  declared  that  traveling 
on  it  was  smoother  and  easier  than  any  they  had 
known  over  the  best  turnpikes  of  Mr.  Macadam.  They 
said  that  even  when  the  train  was  going  at  the  very  high 
speed  of  twenty-five  miles  an  hour  they  "  could  observe 
the  passengers,  among  whom  were  a  good  many  ladies, 
talking  to  gentlemen  with  the  utmost  sangfroid" 

Business  men  were  delighted  at  being  able  to  leave 
Liverpool  in  the  morning,  travel  to  Manchester,  do 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     159 

business  there,  and  return  home  the  same  afternoon. 
The  price  of  coal,  and  the  cost  of  carrying  all  classes  of 
goods,  was  tremendously  reduced.  Another  result, 
which  was  the  opposite  of  what  had  been  expected,  was 
that  the  price  of  land  along  the  line  and  near  the  sta- 
tions at  once  rose.  Instead  of  the  noise  and  smoke  of 
the  trains  frightening  people  away  it  seemed  to  charm 
them.  The  very  landlords  who  had  driven  the  sur- 
veyors off  their  property  and  done  everything  they 
could  to  hinder  the  builders  now  complained  if  the  rail- 
road did  not  pass  directly  through  their  domains,  and 
begged  for  stations  close  at  hand.  Even  the  land 
about  Chat  Moss  was  bought  up  and  improved,  and 
all  along  the  line  what  had  been  waste  stretches  began 
to  blossom  into  towns  and  villages. 

Stephenson  continued  to  make  improvements  to  his 
locomotives.  He  had  already  added  the  multitubular 
boiler,  the  idea  of  which  was  to  increase  the  evapora- 
tive power  of  the  boiler  by  adding  to  its  heating  sur- 
face by  means  of  many  small  tubes  filled  with  water. 
This  increase  of  evaporative  power  increased  the  speed 
the  engine  could  attain.  In  his  new  engine,  the  "  Sam- 
son," he  adopted  the  plan  of  coupling  the  fore  and  rear 
wheels  of  the  engine.  This  more  effectually  secured 
the  adhesion  of  the  wheels  to  the  rails,  and  allowed  the 
carrying  of  heavier  loads.  He  improved  the  springs 
of  the  carriages,  and  built  buffers  to  prevent  the  bumping 
of  the  carriage  ends,  which  had  been  very  unpleasant 
for  the  earliest  passengers.  He  also  found  a  new  method 
of  lubricating  his  carriage  axles,  his  spring  frames,  the 
buffers,  and  the  brakes  he  had  built  for  the  trains. 


160  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  was  to  be 
followed  rapidly  by  other  lines.  George  Stephenson 
was  a  good  man  of  business  as  well  as  a  good  engineer. 
He  suggested  a  number  of  lucrative  opportunities  to 
his  Liverpool  friends,  and  he  took  a  financial  share  in 
some  of  them  himself.  He  thought  there  should  be  a 
line  between  Swannington  and  Leicester,  in  order  to  in- 
crease the  coal  supply  of  the  latter  town,  which  was 
quite  a  manufacturing  centre.  A  company  was  formed, 
and  his  son  Robert  was  appointed  engineer.  In  the 
course  of  the  work  Robert  learned  that  an  estate  near 
the  road  was  to  be  sold,  and  decided  that  there  was 
considerable  coal  there.  George  Stephenson  and  two 
other  friends  bought  the  place,  and  he  took  up  his  res- 
idence there,  at  Alton  Grange,  in  order  to  supervise  the 
mining  operations.  The  mine  was  very  successful,  and 
the  railroad  proved  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  people 
of  Leicester.  Stephenson  now  changed  his  position 
from  that  of  an  employee  of  coal-owners  to  that  of  em- 
ployer of  many  miners  himself. 

The  first  railroads  to  be  built  were  principally 
branches  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  one,  and 
chiefly  located  in  the  mining  and  manufacturing 
county  of  Lancaster.  But  before  long  the  great  metrop- 
olis of  London  required  railroad  communication  with 
the  Midlands,  and  the  London  and  Birmingham  road  was 
projected.  Here  again  the  promoters  had  to  overcome 
gigantic  obstacles,  the  opposition  of  the  great  landed 
proprietors  who  owned  vast  estates  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  London,  the  opposition  of  the  old  posting  com- 
panies, and  of  the  conservative  element  who  were  afraid 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     161 

of  the  great  changes  such  a  method  of  transportation 
would  bring  about.  The  natural  difficulties  of  the  first 
lines  were  increased  a  hundredfold,  greater  marshes 
had  to  be  crossed,  greater  streams  to  be  bridged, 
greater  hills  to  be  tunneled.  But  the  greater  the 
obstacles  the  greater  Stephenson's  resources  proved. 
When  some  of  his  tunnels  were  flooded,  because  the 
workmen  had  cut  into  an  unexpected  bed  of  quicksand, 
he  immediately  designed  and  built  a  vast  system  of 
powerful  pumps,  and  drew  off  enough  water  to  fill  the 
Thames  from  London  Bridge  to  Woolwich,  so  that  his 
workmen  might  continue  the  tunnels  and  line  them 
with  masonry  sufficiently  solid  to  withstand  any  future 
inrush  of  water. 

The  men  who  were  back  of  this  railroad  would  very 
probably  never  have  projected  it  had  they  realized  that 
the  building  of  it  would  cost  five  million  pounds.  But 
when  the  road  was  opened  for  use  the  excess  in  traffic 
beyond  the  estimates  was  much  greater  than  the  excess 
in  cost  had  been.  The  company  was  able  to  pay  large 
dividends,  and  the  builders  found  that  they  could  have 
made  no  better  investment.  This  London  and  Bir- 
mingham road,  112  miles  long,  was  opened  September 
17,  1838.  The  receipts  from  passenger  traffic  alone  for 
the  first  year  were  ^608,564.  Evidently  travel  by 
coach  had  not  been  as  popular  in  reality  as  the  conserv- 
atives had  ardently  maintained. 

It  is  curious  to  note  the  many  kinds  of  opposition 
these  first  railways  encountered.  Said  Mr.  Berkeley, 
a  member  of  Parliament  for  Cheltenham,  "  Nothing  is 
more  distasteful  to  me  than  to  hear  the  echo  of  our 


162  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

hills  reverberating  with  the  noise  of  hissing  railroad 
engines  running  through  the  heart  of  our  hunting 
country,  and  destroying  that  noble  sport  to  which  I 
have  been  accustomed  from  my  childhood."  One 
Colonel  Sibthorpe  declared  that  he  "  would  rather 
meet  a  highwayman,  or  see  a  burglar  on  his  premises, 
than  an  engineer;  he  should  be  much  more  safe, 
and  of  the  two  classes  he  thought  the  former  more 
respectable ! "  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  the  eminent  sur- 
geon, said  to  Robert  Stephenson,  when  the  latter 
called  to  see  him  about  a  new  road,  "  Your  scheme 
is  preposterous  in  the  extreme.  It  is  of  so  extrava- 
gant a  character  as  to  be  positively  absurd.  Then 
look  at  the  recklessness  of  your  proceedings  !  You 
are  proposing  to  cut  up  our  estates  in  all  directions 
for  the  purpose  of  making  an  unnecessary  road.  Do 
you  think  for  one  moment  of  the  destruction  of  prop- 
erty involved  in  it  ?  Why,  gentlemen,  if  this  sort  of 
thing  is  allowed  to  go  on,  you  will  in  a  very  few 
years  destroy  the  noblesse  ! "  Physicians  maintained 
that  travel  through  tunnels  would  be  most  prejudi- 
cial to  health.  Dr.  Lardner  protested  against  passen- 
gers being  compelled  to  put  up  with  what  he  called  "  the 
destruction  of  the  atmospheric  air,"  and  Sir  Anthony 
Carlisle  insisted  that  "  tunnels  would  expose  healthy 
people  to  colds,  catarrhs,  and  consumption."  Many 
critics  expected  the  boilers  of  the  locomotives  to  ex- 
plode at  any  and  all  times.  Others  were  sure  that 
the  railways  would  throw  so  many  workmen  out  of 
employment  that  revolution  must  follow,  and  still 
others  declared  that  England  was  being  delivered  ut- 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE    163 

terly  into  the  power  of  a  small  group  of  manufacturers 
and  mine-owners.  But  in  spite  of  all  this  the  people 
took  to  riding  on  the  railways  and  England  prospered. 

The  aristocracy  held  out  the  longest.  Noblemen 
did  not  relish  the  thought  of  traveling  in  the  same 
carriages  with  workmen.  The  private  coach  had 
for  long  been  a  badge  of  station.  For  a  time,  there- 
fore, the  old  families  and  country  gentility  sent  their 
servants  and  their  luggage  by  train,  but  themselves 
jogged  along  the  old  post-roads  in  the  family  chariots. 
But  there  were  more  accidents  and  more  delays  in 
travel  by  coach  than  by  train,  and  so,  one  by  one,  they 
pocketed  their  pride  and  capitulated.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington,  who  had  seen  the  accident  to  Mr.  Huskis- 
son  near  Liverpool,  held  out  against  such  travel  for  a 
long  time.  But  when  Queen  Victoria,  in  1842,  used 
the  railway  to  go  from  London  to  Windsor,  the  last 
resistance  ended,  and  the  Iron  Duke,  together  with 
the  rest  of  his  order,  followed  the  Queen's  example. 
Said  the  famous  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  as  he  watched 
a  train  speeding  through  the  country,  "  I  rejoice  to 
see  it,  and  think  that  feudality  is  gone  forever.  It  is 
so  great  a  blessing  to  think  that  any  one  evil  is  really 
extinct." 

Stephenson  himself  was  one  of  the  busiest  men  in  the 
kingdom.  He  was  engineer  of  half  a  dozen  lines  that 
were  building,  and  he  traveled  incessantly.  Many 
nights  the  only  sleep  he  had  was  while  sitting  in  his 
chaise  riding  over  country  roads.  At  dawn  he  would 
be  at  work,  surveying,  planning,  directing,  until  night- 
fall. In  three  years  he  surveyed  and  directed  the  con- 


164  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

struction  of  the  North  Midland  line,  running  from 
Derby  to  Leeds,  the  York  and  North  Midland,  from 
Normanton  to  York,  the  Manchester  and  Leeds,  the 
Birmingham  and  Derby,  and  the  Sheffield  and  Rother- 
ham.  And  in  addition  to  this  he  traveled  far  and  wide 
to  give  advice  about  distant  lines,  to  the  south  of  Eng- 
land, to  Scotland,  and  to  the  north  of  Ireland  to  in- 
spect the  proposed  Ulster  Railway.  He  took  an  office 
in  London,  in  order  that  he  might  take  part  in  the 
railway  discussions  that  were  continually  coming  be- 
fore Parliament.  His  knowledge  of  every  detail  re- 
lating to  the  subject  was  enormous.  He  knew  both 
the  engineering  and  the  business  sides  most  intimately. 
"  In  fact,"  he  said  to  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1841,  "  there  is  hardly  a  railway  in  Eng- 
land that  I  have  not  had  to  do  with."  Yet  in  spite  of 
all  this  work  he  found  time  to  look  after  his  coal 
mines  near  Chesterfield,  to  establish  lime-works  at  Am- 
bergate,  on  the  Midland  Railway,  and  to  superintend 
his  flourishing  locomotive  factory  at  Newcastle. 

King  Leopold  of  Belgium  invited  him  to  Brussels, 
and  there  discussed  with  him  his  plans  for  a  railway 
from  Brussels  to  Ghent.  The  King  made  him  a  Knight 
of  his  Order  of  Leopold,  and  when  the  railway  was 
finished  George  Stephenson  was  one  of  the  chief 
guests  of  honor  at  the  opening.  Later  he  went  to 
France,  where  he  was  consulted  in  regard  to  the 
new  line  that  was  building  between  Orleans  and 
Tours.  From  there  he  went  to  Spain  to  look  into  the 
possible  construction  of  a  road  between  Madrid  and 
the  Bay  of  Biscay.  He  found  the  government  of  Spain 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     165 

indifferent  to  the  railway,  and  there  were  many  doubts 
as  to  whether  there  would  be  sufficient  traffic  to  pay 
the  cost  of  construction.  His  report  to  the  sharehold- 
ers in  this  proposed  "  Royal  North  of  Spain  Railway  " 
was  therefore  unfavorable,  and  the  idea  was  shortly 
after  abandoned. 

Stephenson  had  moved  his  home  from  Alton  Grange 
to  Tapton  House  in  1838.  The  latter  place  was  a 
large,  comfortable  dwelling,  beautifully  situated  among 
woods  about  a  mile  to  the  northeast  of  Chesterfield. 
Here  he  lived  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman,  free  to  in- 
dulge the  strong  love  of  nature  that  had  always  been 
one  of  his  leading  characteristics.  He  began  to  grow 
fine  fruits  and  vegetables  and  flowers,  and  his  farm  and 
gardens  and  hothouses  became  celebrated  all  over  Eng- 
land. He  was  continually  sought  out  by  inventors  and 
scientific  men,  who  wanted  his  views  on  their  particular 
work.  He  also  spent  some  time  at  Tapton  in  devising 
improvements  for  the  locomotive.  One  of  these  was  a 
three-cylinder  locomotive,  and  such  an  engine  was  later 
used  successfully  on  the  North  Eastern  Railway.  It 
was,  however,  found  to  be  too  expensive  an  engine  for 
general  railroad  use.  He  also  invented  a  new  self- 
acting  brake.  He  sent  a  model  of  this  to  the  Institute 
of  Mechanical  Engineers  at  Birmingham,  of  which  he 
was  president,  together  with  a  report  describing  it  in 
full.  "  Any  effectual  plan,"  he  wrote,  "  for  increasing 
the  safety  of  railway  traveling  is,  in  my  mind,  of  such 
vital  importance,  that  I  prefer  laying  my  scheme  open 
to  the  world  to  taking  out  a  patent  for  it ;  and  it  will  be 
a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  me  to  know  that  it  has 


166  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

been  the  means  of  saving  even  one  human  life  from 
destruction,  or  that  it  has  prevented  one  serious  con- 
cussion." 

He  also  gave  great  assistance  to  his  son  Robert,  who 
was  rapidly  becoming  a  railway  engineer  second  only  to 
his  father  in  fame.  George  Stephenson  began  the  line 
from  Chester  to  Holyhead,  which  was  completed  by 
Robert.  Robert  designed  the  tubular  bridge  across  the 
Menai  Straits  on  this  line,  which  was  considered  a  most 
remarkable  feat.  Permission  could  not  be  obtained  to 
interfere  with  the  navigation  of  the  Straits  in  the 
slightest  degree  during  the  building,  and  so  piers  and 
arches  could  not  be  used.  It  occurred  to  Robert 
Stephenson  that  the  train  might  be  run  through  a 
hollow  iron  beam.  Two  tubes,  which  were  to  form  the 
bridge,  were  made  of  wrought  iron,  floated  out  into  the 
stream,  and  raised  into  position.  This  new  and  original 
railway  bridge  proved  a  success,  and  convinced  Eng- 
land that  Robert  had  inherited  his  father's  genius  for 
surmounting  what  seemed  impossible  natural  difficulties. 
George  Stephenson  did  not  live  to  see  this  line  com- 
pleted. He  died  August  12,  1848. 

In  many  respects  Stephenson  was  like  Watt.  He 
came  from  the  working  classes,  inheriting  no  special 
gift  for  science,  and  little  leisure  to  follow  his  own  bent. 
What  he  learned  he  got  at  first  hand,  in  the  coal  mines 
and  the  engine  shops.  What  he  accomplished  was  due 
largely  to  indomitable  perseverance.  Others  had  built 
steam-engines  that  were  almost  successful  as  locomotives, 
but  for  one  reason  or  another  had  never  pushed  their 
invention  to  that  point  where  the  world  could  actually 


STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     167 

use  it.  When  Stephenson  had  built  his  locomotive  he 
fought  for  it,  he  made  men  take  an  interest  in  it,  and 
the  world  accept  it.  He  always  spoke  of  his  career  as  a 
battle.  "  I  have  fought,"  said  he,  "  for  the  locomotive 
single-handed  for  nearly  twenty  years,  having  no 
engineer  to  help  me  until  I  had  reared  engineers  under 
my  own  care."  And  again  he  said,  "I  put  up  with 
every  rebuff,  determined  not  to  be  put  down." 

Stephenson  did  for  the  locomotive  what  Watt  did  for 
the  condensing  engine.  He  took  the  primitive  devices 
of  other  men,  and  by  the  rare  powers  of  selection, 
combination,  and  invention  produced  a  finished  product 
of  wonderful  power  and  efficiency.  True  it  is  that 
neither  Watt  nor  Stephenson  were  the  first  men  to 
conceive  of  a  steam-engine  or  a  locomotive,  nor  even 
the  first  to  build  working  models,  but  they  were  the 
first  to  finish  what  they  began,  and  add  the  steam- 
engine  and  the  locomotive  to  the  other  servants  of  men. 

Dr.  Arnold  was  doubtless  right  when  he  looked  upon 
the  railway  as  presaging  the  end  of  the  feudal  system. 
Its  value  is  beyond  any  estimate.  It  has  widened 
man's  horizon,  and  given  him  all  the  lands  instead  of 
only  the  limits  of  his  homestead. 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH 

1791-1872 

ON  the  packet  ship  Sully,  sailing  from  the  French 
port  of  Havre  for  New  York  on  October  i,  1832,  were 
Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson,  of  Boston,  who  had  been  at- 
tending certain  lectures  on  electricity  in  Paris,  and  an 
American  artist  named  Samuel  Finley  Breese  Morse. 
Dr.  Jackson  was  intensely  interested  in  electricity,  and 
more  especially  in  some  experiments  that  Faraday  had 
lately  been  making  in  regard  to  it.  He  had  an  electro- 
magnet in  his  trunk,  and  one  day,  as  a  number  of  the 
passengers  sat  at  dinner,  he  began  to  describe  the  laws 
of  electro-magnetism  as  they  were  then  known.  He 
told  how  the  force  of  a  magnet  could  be  tremendously 
increased  by  passing  an  electric  current  a  number  of 
times  about  a  bar  of  soft  iron.  One  of  the  diners  asked 
how  far  electricity  could  be  transmitted  and  how  fast  it 
traveled.  Dr.  Jackson  answered  that  it  seemed  to 
travel  instantaneously,  none  of  the  experimenters  having 
detected  any  appreciable  difference  in  time  between  the 
completing  of  the  electric  circuit  and  the  appearance 
of  the  spark  at  any  distance.  Morse,  who  had  been 
interested  in  the  study  of  electricity  at  Yale  College, 
said  that  if  the  electric  current  could  be  made  visible  in 
any  part  of  the  circuit  he  saw  no  reason  why  messages 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  169 

could  not  be  sent  instantaneously  by  electricity.  To 
send  a  message  would  simply  require  the  breaking  of 
the  circuit  in  such  different  ways  as  could  be  made  to 
represent  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  The  conversation 
went  on  to  other  subjects,  but  the  artist  kept  the  con- 
clusion he  had  just  stated  in  mind.  That  night  he 
walked  the  deck  discussing  the  matter  with  Dr.  Jackson, 
and  for  the  rest  of  the  voyage  he  was  busy  jotting 
down  suggestions  in  his  note-book  and  elaborating 
a  plan  for  transforming  breaks  in  an  electric  current 
into  letters. 

The  facts  at  his  disposal,  and  his  first  method  of 
dealing  with  them,  were  comparatively  simple.  The 
electric  current  would  travel  to  any  distance  along  a 
wire.  The  current  being  broken,  a  spark  would  appear. 
The  spark  would  stand  for  one  letter.  The  lack  of  a 
spark  might  stand  for  another.  The  length  of  its 
absence  would  indicate  another.  With  these  three  in- 
dications as  a  starting-point  he  could  build  up  an 
alphabet.  As  there  was  no  limit  to  the  distance  that 
electricity  would  travel  there  seemed  no  reason  why 
these  dots  and  dashes,  or  sparks  and  spaces,  should  not 
be  sent  all  around  the  world. 

Professor  Jeremiah  Day  had  taught  Morse  at  Yale  that 
the  electric  spark  might  be  made  to  pierce  a  band  of  un- 
rolling paper.  Harrison  Gray  Dyar,  of  New  York,  in 
1827,  had  shown  that  the  spark  would  decompose  a 
chemical  solution  and  so  leave  a  stain  as  a  mark,  and  it 
was  known  that  it  would  excite  an  electro-magnet, 
which  would  move  a  piece  of  soft  iron,  and  that  if  a 
pencil  were  attached  to  this  a  mark  would  be  made  on 


170  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

paper.  Therefore  Morse  knew  that  if  he  devised  his 
alphabet  he  had  only  to  choose  the  best  method  of  in- 
dicating the  dots  and  dashes  by  the  current.  The 
voyage  from  Havre  to  New  York  occupied  six  weeks, 
and  during  the  greater  part  of  this  time  he  was  busy 
working  out  a  mechanical  sender  which  would  serve  to 
break  the  electric  current  by  a  series  of  types  set  on  a 
stick  which  should  travel  at  an  even  rate  of  speed. 
The  teeth  of  the  type  would  complete  the  circuit  or 
would  break  the  current  as  they  passed,  and  so  send 
the  letters.  At  the  receiving  end  of  the  line  the  cur- 
rent as  it  was  sent  would  excite  the  electro-magnet, 
which  would  be  attached  to  a  pencil,  and  so  make  a 
mark,  and  each  mark  would  represent  one  of  the 
symbols  that  were  to  stand  for  letters.  He  worked 
day  and  night  over  these  first  plans,  and  after  a  few 
days  showed  his  notes  to  Mr.  William  C.  Rives,  a  pas- 
senger, who  had  been  the  United  States  Minister  to 
France.  Mr.  Rives  made  various  criticisms,  and  Morse 
took  these  up  in  turn,  and  after  long  study  overcame 
each  one,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  voyage  he  felt  that 
he  had  worked  out  a  practical  method  of  making  the 
electric  current  send  and  receive  messages. 

At  a  later  date  a  contest  arose  as  to  the  respective 
claims  of  Samuel  Morse  and  Dr.  Jackson  to  be  con- 
sidered the  inventor  of  the  recording  telegraph,  and 
the  evidence  of  their  fellow  passengers  on  board  the 
Sully  was  given  in  great  detail.  From  all  that  was 
then  said  it  would  appear  that  Dr.  Jackson  knew  quite 
as  much,  if  not  more,  about  the  properties  of  electro- 
magnetism  than  Morse  did,  but  that  he  was  of  a 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  171 

speculative  turn  of  mind,  whereas  Morse  was  practical, 
and  capable  of  reducing  the  other's  theories  to  a  work- 
ing basis.  The  note-books  he  submitted,  and  which 
were  well  remembered  by  many  of  his  fellow  voyagers, 
showed  the  various  combinations  of  dots,  lines,  and 
spaces  with  which  he  was  constructing  an  alphabet,  and 
also  the  crude  diagrams  of  the  recording  instrument 
which  should  mark  the  dots  and  lines  on  a  rolling  piece 
of  paper.  Captain  Pell,  in  command  of  the  Sully, 
testified  later,  that  as  the  packet  came  into  port  Morse 
said  to  him,  "  Well,  Captain,  should  you  hear  of  the 
telegraph  one  of  these  days  as  the  wonder  of  the  world, 
remember  that  the  discovery  was  made  on  board  the 
good  ship  Sully."  The  times  were  ripe  for  his  great 
invention,  and  although  other  men,  abler  scientists  and 
students,  had  foreseen  the  possibilities  of  such  a  system, 
it  was  Morse  who  determined  to  put  it  into  practice. 

But  Samuel  Morse  was  a  painter,  and  all  his  career 
thus  far  had  lain  along  artistic  lines.  True,  when  he 
was  an  undergraduate  at  Yale  he  had  been  much  in- 
terested in  Professor  Day's  lectures  on  electricity,  and 
had  written  long  letters  home  in  regard  to  them.  But 
when  he  was  about  to  graduate,  he  wrote  to  his  father, 
a  well-known  clergyman  of  Charlestown,  Massachusetts, 
"  I  am  now  released  from  college,  and  am  attending  to 
painting.  As  to  my  choice  of  a  profession,  I  still  think 
I  was  made  for  a  painter,  and  would  be  obliged  to  you 
to  make  such  arrangements  with  Mr.  Allston  for  my 
studying  with  him  as  you  shall  think  expedient.  I 
should  desire  to  study  with  him  during  the  winter  ;  and, 
as  he  expects  to  return  to  England  in  the  spring,  I 


I72  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

should  admire  to  be  able  to  go  with  him.  But  of  this 
we  will  talk  when  we  meet  at  home." 

Washington  Allston  was  at  that  time  the  leading  in- 
fluence in  the  primitive  art  life  of  the  country,  and 
Morse  was  very  fortunate  to  have  won  his  friendship 
and  interest  Allston  took  him  to  England,  and  there 
introduced  him  to  Benjamin  West,  the  dean  of  painters 
and  a  man  who  was  always  eager  to  aid  young  coun- 
trymen of  his  who  planned  to  follow  his  career. 
Morse  made  a  careful  drawing  of  the  Farnese  Hercules 
and  took  it  to  West.  The  veteran  examined  it  and 
handed  it  back,  saying,  "  Now  finish  it."  Morse  worked 
over  it  some  time  longer,  and  returned  it  to  West. 
"Very  well,  indeed,  sir,"  said  West.  "Go  on  and 
finish  it."  "  Is  it  not  finished  ?  "  asked  Morse.  "  See," 
said  West,  "  you  have  not  marked  that  muscle,  nor  the 
articulation  of  the  finger-joints."  Again  Morse  worked 
over  it,  and  again  returned,  only  to  meet  with  the  same 
counsel  to  complete  the  picture.  Then  the  older  man  re- 
lented. "  Well,  I  have  tried  you  long  enough,"  said  he. 
"  Now,  sir,  you  have  learned  more  by  this  drawing  than 
you  would  have  accomplished  in  double  the  time  by  a 
dozen  half-finished  beginnings.  It  is  not  many  draw- 
ings, but  the  character  of  one  which  makes  a  thorough 
draughtsman.  Finish  one  picture,  sir,  and  you  are  a 
painter." 

Morse  now  decided  to  paint  a  large  picture  of  "  The 
Dying  Hercules  "  for  exhibition  at  the  Royal  Academy. 
In  order  to  be  sure  of  the  anatomy  he  first  modeled 
the  figure  in  clay,  and  this  cast  was  so  well  done  that, 
acting  on  West's  advice,  he  entered  it  for  a  prize  in 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  173 

sculpture  then  offered  by  the  Society  of  Arts.  This 
entry  won,  and  the  young  American  was  presented 
with  the  gold  medal  of  the  society  before  a  distin- 
guished audience.  The  picture  that  he  painted  from 
this  model  was  hung  at  the  exhibition  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  and  received  high  praise  from  the  critics,  so 
that  Morse  felt  he  had  begun  his  career  as  artist  most 
auspiciously. 

His  natural  inclination  was  toward  the  painting  of 
large  canvases  dealing  with  historical  and  mythical 
subjects,  which  were  much  in  fashion  at  that  period, 
and  he  now  set  to  work  on  the  subject,  "  The  Judgment 
of  Jupiter  in  the  case  of  Apollo,  Marpessa,  and  Idas." 
This  was  to  be  submitted  for  the  prize  of  fifty  guineas 
and  medal  offered  by  the  Royal  Academy.  It  seems 
to  have  been  a  fine  piece  of  work,  and  met  with  West's 
hearty  praise,  but  before  it  could  be  submitted  the  artist 
was  obliged  to  return  home  at  an  urgent  summons 
from  his  father. 

Boston  had  already  heard  of  Morse's  success  in 
London  when  he  reached  home  in  October,  1815.  His 
"  Judgment  of  Jupiter  "  was  exhibited,  and  became  the 
talk  of  the  town,  but  when  he  opened  a  studio  and 
began  to  paint  no  one  offered  to  buy  any  of  his  pictures. 
He  needed  money  badly,  and  he  saw  none  coming  his 
way.  After  a  year's  struggle  he  closed  his  studio,  and 
traveled  through  the  country  sections  of  New  England, 
looking  for  work  as  a  portrait  painter.  This  he  found, 
and  he  wrote  to  his  parents  from  Concord,  New  Hamp- 
shire, "I  have  painted  five  portraits  at  $15  each,  and 
have  two  more  engaged  and  many  talked  of.  I  think 


I74  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

I  shall  get  along-  well.  I  believe  I  could  make  an  inde- 
pendent fortune  in  a  few  years  if  I  devoted  myself  ex- 
clusively to  portraits,  so  great  is  the  desire  for  good 
portraits  in  the  different  country  towns." 

In  Concord  he  met  Miss  Lucretia  P.  Walker,  whom 
he  married  a  few  years  later.  Meantime  he  went  to 
visit  his  uncle  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  found 
his  portraits  so  popular  that  he  received  one  hundred 
and  fifty  orders  in  a  few  weeks.  He  was  also  com- 
missioned to  paint  a  portrait  of  James  Monroe,  then 
President,  for  the  Charleston  Common  Council,  and  the 
picture  was  considered  a  striking  masterpiece.  He 
soon  after  married,  and  settled  his  household  goods  in 
New  York,  with  $3,000  made  by  his  portraits,  as  his 
capital. 

He  knew  what  he  wanted  to  do,  to  paint  great  his- 
torical pictures.  But  the  public  did  not  appreciate  his 
efforts  in  that  line.  He  painted  a  large  exhibition 
picture  for  the  National  House  of  Representatives,  but 
it  was  not  purchased  by  the  government.  On  the 
other  hand  the  Corporation  of  New  York  commissioned 
him  to  paint  the  portrait  of  Lafayette,  who  was  then 
visiting  America.  At  the  same  time  he  became  en- 
thusiastic over  the  founding  of  a  new  society  of  artists, 
and  was  chosen  the  first  president  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design. 

His  small  capital  was  dwindling.  His  efforts  to  paint 
historical  pictures  rather  than  portraits,  and  his  share 
in  paying  off  certain  debts  of  his  father's,  had  made 
great  inroads  on  the  money  he  had  saved.  To  add  to 
his  misfortunes  his  wife  died  in  February,  1825.  In  1829 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  175 

he  went  abroad,  visited  the  great  galleries  of  Europe, 
and  tried  to  find  a  more  ready  market  for  his  historical 
studies.  It  was  on  his  return  from  France  in  1832  that 
the  conversation  of  Dr.  Jackson  and  the  other  pas- 
sengers turned  his  thoughts  in  the  direction  of  an  elec- 
tric telegraph. 

Now  came  his  gradual  transformation  from  painter 
to  inventor.  His  brothers  gave  him  a  room  with  them 
in  New  York,  and  this  became  his  studio  and  labora- 
tory at  one  and  the  same  time.  Easels  and  plaster- 
casts  were  mixed  with  type-moulds  and  galvanic  bat- 
teries, and  Morse  turned  from  a  portrait  to  his  working 
model  of  telegraph  transmitter  and  back  again  a  dozen 
times  a  day.  He  painted  to  make  his  living,  but  his 
interest  was  steadily  turning  to  his  invention. 

He  had  many  friends,  and  a  wide  reputation  as  a 
man  of  great  intellectual  ability,  and  in  a  few  years  he 
was  appointed  the  first  Professor  of  the  Literature  of 
the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  new  University  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  This  gave  him  a  home  in  the  university 
building  on  Washington  Square,  and  there  he  moved 
his  apparatus.  At  this  time  he  was  chiefly  concerned 
with  the  question  of  how  far  a  message  could  be  sent 
by  the  electric  current,  for  it  was  known  that  the  cur- 
rent grew  feebler  in  proportion  to  the  resistance  of  the 
wire  through  which  it  travels.  He  had  learned  that 
the  electro-magnet  at  the  receiving  end  would  at  any 
great  distance  become  so  enfeebled  that  it  would  fail  to 
make  any  record  of  the  message.  His  solution  of  this 
difficulty  was  a  relay  system.  He  explained  this  to 
Professor  Gale,  a  colleague  at  the  university,  who 


j;6  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

later  testified  as  to  Morse's  work.  "  Suppose,"  said 
the  inventor,  "  that  in  experimenting  on  twenty  miles 
of  wire  we  should  find  that  the  power  of  magnetism  is 
so  feeble  that  it  will  not  move  a  lever  with  certainty  a 
hair's  breadth :  that  would  be  insufficient,  it  may  be, 
to  write  or  print ;  yet  it  would  be  sufficient  to  close 
and  break  another  or  a  second  circuit  twenty  miles 
farther,  and  this  second  circuit  could  be  made,  in  the 
same  manner,  to  break  and  close  a  third  circuit  twenty 
miles  farther,  and  so  on  around  the  globe."  Gale 
proved  of  great  assistance.  So  far  Morse  had  only 
used  his  recorder  over  a  few  yards  of  wire,  his  electro- 
magnet had  been  of  the  simplest  make,  and  his  battery 
was  a  single  pair  of  plates.  Gale  suggested  that  his 
simple  electro-magnet,  with  its  few  turns  of  thick  wire, 
should  be  replaced  by  one  with  a  coil  of  long  thin  wire. 
In  this  way  a  much  feebler  current  would  be  able  to 
excite  the  magnet,  and  the  recorder  would  mark  at  a 
much  greater  distance.  He  also  urged  the  use  of  a 
much  more  powerful  battery.  The  two  men  now 
erected  a  working  telegraph  in  the  rooms  of  the 
university,  and  found  that  they  could  send  and  receive 
messages  at  will. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  Morse's  own  words  in  regard 
to  the  beginning  of  his  work  at  Washington  Square. 
11  There,"  he  said,  "  I  immediately  commenced,  with 
very  limited  means,  to  experiment  upon  my  invention. 
My  first  instrument  was  made  up  of  an  old  picture  or 
canvas  frame  fastened  to  a  table ;  the  wheels  of  an  old 
wooden  clock,  moved  by  a  weight  to  carry  the  paper 
forward  ;  three  wooden  drums,  upon  one  of  which  the 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  177 

paper  was  wound  and  passed  over  the  other  two  ;  a 
wooden  pendulum  suspended  to  the  top  piece  of  the 
picture  or  stretching  frame  and  vibrating  across  the 
paper  as  it  passed  over  the  centre  wooden  drum ;  a 
pencil  at  the  lower  end  of  the  pendulum,  in  contact  with 
the  paper ;  an  electro-magnet  fastened  to  a  shelf  across 
the  picture  or  stretching  frame,  opposite  to  an  arma- 
ture made  fast  to  the  pendulum  ;  a  type  rule  and  type 
for  breaking  the  circuit,  resting  on  an  endless  band, 
composed  of  carpet-binding,  which  passed  over  two 
wooden  rollers  moved  by  a  wooden  crank. 

"  Up  to  the  autumn  of  1837  my  telegraphic  apparatus 
existed  in  so  rude  a  form  that  I  felt  a  reluctance  to  have 
it  seen.  My  means  were  very  limited — so  limited  as  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  constructing  an  apparatus  of 
such  mechanical  finish  as  to  warrant  my  success  in 
venturing  upon  its  public  exhibition.  I  had  no  wish  to 
expose  to  ridicule  the  representative  of  so  many  hours 
of  laborious  thought.  Prior  to  the  summer  of  1837,  at 
which  time  Mr.  Alfred  Vail's  attention  became  attracted 
to  my  telegraph,  I  depended  upon  my  pencil  for  sub- 
sistence. Indeed,  so  straightened  were  my  circum- 
stances that,  in  order  to  save  time  to  carry  out  my 
invention  and  to  economize  my  scanty  means,  I  had 
for  many  months  lodged  and  eaten  in  my  studio,  pro- 
curing my  food  in  small  quantities  from  some  grocery 
and  preparing  it  myself.  To  conceal  from  my  friends 
the  stinted  manner  in  which  I  lived,  I  was  in  the  habit 
of  bringing  my  food  to  my  room  in  the  evenings,  and 
this  was  my  mode  of  life  for  many  years." 

Before  he  devoted  all  his  time  to  his  invention  Morse 


i;8  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

had  been  anxious  to  paint  a  large  historical  picture  for 
one  of  the  panels  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  at 
Washington.  His  offer  had  been  rejected,  and  this 
had  led  a  number  of  his  friends  to  raise  a  fund  and 
commission  him  to  paint  such  a  picture.  He  chose  as 
his  subject  "  The  Signing  of  the  First  Compact  on 
Board  the  Mayflower"  But  he  was  now  so  much  en- 
grossed with  his  experiments  that  he  gave  up  the  plan 
and  the  fund  was  returned  to  the  subscribers. 

We  have  already  heard  in  Morse's  statement  of  the 
arrival  of  Mr.  Alfred  Vail.  He  was  to  have  much  to 
do  with  the  success  of  Morse's  invention.  He  had 
happened  to  call  at  the  university  building  when  the 
inventor  was  showing  his  models  to  several  visiting 
scientists.  "  Professor  Morse,"  said  Mr.  Vail,  "  was 
exhibiting  to  these  gentlemen  an  apparatus  which  he 
called  his  Electro-Magnetic  Telegraph.  There  were 
wires  suspended  in  the  room  running  from  one  end  of 
it  to  the  other,  and  returning  many  times,  making  a 
length  of  several  hundred  feet.  The  two  ends  of  the 
wire  were  connected  with  an  electro-magnet  fastened 
to  a  vertical  wooden  frame.  In  front  of  the  magnet 
was  its  armature,  and  also  a  wooden  lever  or  arm  fitted 
at  its  extremity  to  hold  a  lead  pencil.  ...  I  saw 
this  instrument  work,  and  became  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  principle  of  its  operation,  and,  I  may  say, 
struck  with  the  rude  machine,  containing,  as  I  believed, 
the  germ  of  what  was  destined  to  produce  great  changes 
in  the  conditions  and  relations  of  mankind.  I  well 
recollect  the  impression  which  was  then  made  upon 
my  mind.  .  .  .  Before  leaving  the  room  in  which 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  179 

I  beheld  for  the  first  time  this  magnificent  invention,  I 
asked  Professor  Morse  if  he  intended  to  make  an  ex- 
periment on  a  more  extended  line  of  conductors.  He 
replied  that  he  did,  but  that  he  desired  pecuniary  as- 
sistance to  carry  out  his  plans.  I  promised  him  assist- 
ance provided  he  would  admit  me  into  a  share  of  the 
invention,  to  which  proposition  he  assented.  .  .  . 
The  question  then  arose  in  my  mind,  whether  the  elec- 
tro-magnet could  be  made  to  work  through  the  neces- 
sary lengths  of  line,  and  after  much  reflection  I  came 
to  the  conclusion  that,  provided  the  magnet  would 
work  even  at  a  distance  of  eight  or  ten  miles,  there 
could  be  no  risk  in  embarking  in  the  enterprise.  And 
upon  this  I  decided  in  my  own  mind  to  sink  or  swim 
with  it." 

Alfred  Vail  secured  his  father's  financial  assistance, 
and  in  September,  1837,  an  agreement  was  executed  by 
which  Vail  was  to  construct  a  model  of  Morse's  tele- 
graph for  exhibition  to  Congress,  and  to  secure  the 
necessary  United  States  patents,  in  return  for  which  he 
was  to  have  a  one-fourth  interest  in  these  patent  rights. 
The  patent  was  obtained  on  October  3,  1837,  and  Vail 
set  to  work  to  prepare  the  new  models.  Almost  all  the 
apparatus  that  was  used  had  to  be  specially  made  for  the 
purpose,  or  altered  from  its  original  use.  The  first  work- 
ing battery  was  placed  in  a  cherry-wood  box  divided  into 
cells  and  lined  with  beeswax,  and  the  insulated  wire  was 
the  same  as  that  the  milliners  used  in  building  up  the 
high  bonnets  fashionable  at  that  day.  Vail  made  cer- 
tain improvements  as  he  worked  on  his  model.  He 
replaced  the  recording  pencil  with  a  fountain  pen,  and 


180  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

instead  of  the  zigzag  signals  used  the  short  and  long 
lines  that  came  to  be  called  "  dots"  and  "  dashes."  He 
learned  from  the  typesetters  of  a  newpaper  office  what 
letters  occurred  most  frequently  in  ordinary  usage, 
and  constructed  the  Morse  or  Vail  code  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  using  the  simplest  signals  to  represent  those 
letters  that  would  be  most  needed. 

By  the  winter  of  1837  many  people  had  seen  the  tele- 
graph instruments  at  the  university  building,  but  few 
of  them  considered  them  more  than  ingenious  toys. 
Scientific  men  had  talked  of  the  possibilities  of  an  elec- 
tric telegraph  for  a  number  of  years,  but  the  public  had 
seen  none  actually  installed.  Even  Vail's  father  began 
to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  his  son's  investment.  To  con- 
vince him  the  young  man,  on  January  6,  1838,  asked  his 
father  to  come  to  the  experimenting  shop  where  Morse 
and  he  were  working.  He  explained  how  the  model 
operated,  and  said  that  he  could  send  any  message  to 
Morse,  who  was  stationed  some  distance  away  at  the 
receiving  end.  The  father  took  a  piece  of  paper,  and 
wrote  on  it,  "A  patient  waiter  is  no  loser."  "  There," 
said  he,  "  if  you  can  send  this,  and  Mr.  Morse  can  read 
it  at  the  other  end  I  shall  be  convinced."  The  message 
was  sent  over  the  wire,  and  correctly  read  by  Morse. 
Then  Mr.  Vail  admitted  that  he  was  satisfied. 

Morse  now  decided  to  bring  his  invention  to  the  at- 
tention of  Congress.  He  was  permitted  to  set  up  his 
apparatus  in  the  room  of  the  House  Committee  on 
Commerce  at  the  Capitol.  There  he  gave  an  exhibi- 
tion to  the  committee,  but  most  of  them  doubted  if  his 
plans  for  sending  long-distance  messages  were  really 


MORSE  AND  THE  FIRST  TELEGRAPH 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  181 

feasible.  On  February  21,  1838,  he  worked  his  tele- 
graph through  ten  miles  of  wire  contained  on  a  reel, 
with  President  Van  Buren  and  his  cabinet  as  an  audi- 
ence. Then  he  asked  that  Congress  appropriate 
sufficient  money  to  enable  him  to  construct  a  telegraph 
line  between  Washington  and  Baltimore.  The  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  Francis  O.  J. 
Smith,  of  Maine,  was  very  much  interested  by  now, 
and  drafted  a  bill  appropriating  $30,000  for  this  pur- 
pose. But  the  bill  did  not  come  to  a  vote,  and  the 
matter  was  allowed  to  drop. 

Meantime  rival  claimants  to  the  invention  were  ap- 
pearing on  all  sides.  Morse  decided  that  he  must  try 
to  secure  European  patents,  and  went  abroad  for  that 
purpose.  His  claim  was  opposed  in  England,  and  in 
France  it  was  finally  decided  that  in  the  case  of  such 
an  invention  the  government  must  be  the  owner.  He 
was  well  received,  and  given  the  fullest  credit  for  his 
achievements,  but  the  patents  were  refused,  and  he  had 
to  return  home  with  his  small  capital  much  depleted 
and  business  prospects  at  a  low  ebb.  Moreover,  the 
United  States  government  now  seemed  to  have  lost  in- 
terest in  the  subject,  and  his  partners,  the  Vails,  were 
having  financial  difficulties  of  their  own. 

While  he  waited  he  continued  to  experiment.  He 
believed  that  the  electric  current  could  be  sent  under 
water  as  easily  as  through  the  air,  and  to  try  this  he 
insulated  a  wire  two  miles  long  with  hempen  threads 
that  were  saturated  with  pitch-tar  and  wrapped  with 
India-rubber.  He  unreeled  this  cable  from  a  small  row- 
boat  between  Castle  Garden  and  Governor's  Island  in 


182  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

New  York  Harbor  on  the  night  of  October  18,  1842. 
At  daybreak  Morse  was  at  the  station  at  the  Battery, 
and  began  to  send  a  message  through  his  submarine 
cable.  He  had  succeeded  in  sending  three  or  four 
characters  when  the  communication  suddenly  stopped, 
and  although  he  waited  and  kept  on  with  his  trials  no 
further  letters  could  be  transmitted.  On  investigation 
it  appeared  that  no  less  than  seven  ships  were  lying 
along  the  line  of  Morse's  cable,  and  that  one  of  these, 
in  getting  under  way,  had  lifted  the  cable  on  her 
anchor.  The  sailors  hauled  two  hundred  feet  of  it  on 
deck,  and,  seeing  no  end  to  it,  cut  it,  and  carried  part  of 
it  away  with  them.  But  the  test  had  proved  Morse's 
theory,  and  he  became  convinced  that  in  time  messages 
could  be  sent  across  the  ocean  as  easily  as  over  land. 
When  Congress  met  in  December,  1842,  Morse  again 
appeared  in  Washington  to  obtain  financial  help.  Con- 
gress was  not  very  enthusiastic  over  his  project,  but  the 
House  Committee  on  Commerce  finally  recommended 
an  appropriation  of  $30,000,  and  a  bill  to  that  effect 
was  passed  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  the 
small  majority  of  six  votes.  The  Senate  was  over- 
crowded with  bills,  and  Morse's  was  continually  post- 
poned. In  the  early  evening  of  the  last  day  of  the 
session  there  were  one  hundred  and  nineteen  bills  to 
come  to  vote  before  his,  and  it  seemed  impossible  that 
it  should  be  taken  up.  Morse,  who  had  been  sitting  in 
the  gallery  all  day,  concluded  that  further  waiting  was 
useless,  and  went  back  to  his  hotel,  planning  to  leave 
for  New  York  early  the  next  morning.  He  found  that 
after  paying  his  hotel  bill  he  would  have  less  than  half 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  183 

a  dollar  in  the  world.  But  as  he  came  down  to  break- 
fast the  following  morning  he  was  met  by  Miss  Ells- 
worth, the  daughter  of  his  friend,  the  Commissioner  of 
Patents.  She  held  out  her  hand,  saying,  "  I  have  come 
to  congratulate  you." 

"  Congratulate  me  !     Upon  what?"  asked  Morse. 

"  On  the  passage  of  your  bill,"  she  answered. 

"  Impossible !  It  couldn't  come  up  last  evening.  You 
must  be  mistaken,"  said  the  inventor. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Ellsworth,  "  father  sent  me  to  tell 
you  that  your  bill  was  passed.  He  remained  until  the 
session  closed,  and  yours  was  the  last  bill  but  one 
acted  upon,  and  it  was  passed  just  five  minutes  before 
the  adjournment." 

In  return  for  this  news  Morse  promised  that  Miss 
Ellsworth  should  send  the  first  message  when  his  tele- 
graph line  was  opened.  That  same  day  he  wrote  to 
Alfred  Vail  that  the  bill  "  was  reached  a  few  minutes 
before  midnight  and  passed.  This  was  the  turning 
point  in  the  history  of  the  telegraph.  My  personal 
funds  were  reduced  to  the  fraction  of  a  dollar,  and, 
had  the  passage  of  the  bill  failed  from  any  cause,  there 
would  have  been  little  prospect  of  another  attempt  on 
my  part  to  introduce  to  the  world  my  new  invention." 

It  had  been  decided  to  construct  an  underground 
line  between  Washington  and  Baltimore,  the  conductor 
being  a  five-wire  cable  laid  in  pipes,  but  after  several 
miles  had  been  laid  from  Baltimore  the  insulation  broke 
down.  A  very  large  part  of  the  government  grant 
had  been  spent,  and  the  situation  looked  very  dubious. 
But  after  some  discussion  it  was  determined  to  carry 


184  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

the  wire  by  poles,  as  this  could  be  done  much  more 
rapidly  and  at  smaller  expense. 

The  National  Whig  Convention,  to  nominate  candi- 
dates for  President  and  Vice- President,  met  at  Baltimore 
on  May  i,  1844.  The  overhead  wire  had  been  started 
from  Washington  toward  Baltimore,  and  by  that  day 
twenty-two  miles  of  it  were  in  working  order.  The 
day  before  the  convention  met  Morse  had  arranged 
with  Vail  that  certain  signals  should  mean  that  certain 
candidates  had  been  nominated.  Henry  Clay  was 
named  for  President,  and  the  news  was  carried  by  rail- 
road to  the  point  where  Morse  had  stretched  his  wire. 
He  signaled  it  to  Washington,  and  the  Capitol  heard 
it  long  before  the  first  messages  arrived  by  train. 

On  May  24,  1844,  the  line  was  completed,  and  Miss 
Ellsworth  was  invited  to  send  the  first  message  from 
the  room  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  to  Balti- 
more. She  chose  the  Biblical  words  "  What  hath  God 
wrought?"  and  this  was  sent  over  the  telegraph.  Vail 
received  the  message  in  Baltimore,  and  the  first  demon- 
stration was  a  complete  success.  The  younger  man 
had  added  an  improvement  of  his  own ;  instead  of  the 
dots  and  dashes  being  indicated  by  the  markings  of  a 
pen  or  pencil  they  were  embossed  on  the  paper  with  a 
metal  stylus. 

An  incident  in  connection  with  the  Democratic  Con- 
vention, which  was  then  in  session  in  Baltimore  for  the 
purpose  of  nominating  presidential  candidates,  added 
to  the  public  interest  in  Morse's  telegraph.  The  Demo- 
crats had  named  James  K.  Polk  for  President  and  Silas 
Wright  for  Vice-President.  The  news  was  sent  by 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  185 

wire  to  Washington,  and  Mr.  Wright  sent  his  message 
declining  the  honor  over  the  telegraph.  The  chairman 
of  the  meeting,  Hendrick  B.  Wright,  received  the 
message.  In  a  letter  to  Benson  J.  Lossing  he  says, 
"  As  the  presiding  officer  of  the  body  I  read  the  des- 
patch, but  so  incredulous  were  the  members  as  to  the 
authority  of  the  evidence  before  them  that  the  con- 
vention adjourned  over  to  the  following  day  to  await 
the  report  of  the  committee  sent  over  to  Washington 
to  get  reliable  information  on  the  subject."  The  com- 
mittee returned  with  word  that  the  telegraph  message 
had  been  correct.  Then,  all  but  the  convention  com- 
mittee being  excluded  from  the  telegraph  room  in 
Baltimore,  message  after  message  was  sent  over  the 
wire  by  Vail  to  Morse  and  Silas  Wright  in  Washing- 
ton. The  committee  used  many  arguments  to  urge 
Wright's  acceptance ;  he  answered  them  all,  persisting 
in  his  refusal ;  and  finally  this  decision  was  reported  to 
the  convention,  which  nominated  Mr.  Dallas  in  his 
place.  The  story  of  the  part  the  new  invention  had 
played  quickly  spread  abroad,  and  added  to  the  intense 
public  interest  now  focussed  on  it. 

On  April  i,  1845,  the  first  telegraph  line  between 
Washington  and  Baltimore  was  opened  for  general 
use.  Congress  had  appropriated  $8,000  to  maintain  it 
for  the  first  year,  and  placed  it  under  the  direction  of 
the  Postmaster- General.  The  official  charge  was  one 
cent  for  every  four  characters  transmitted.  The  re- 
ceipts of  the  first  four  days  were  one  cent,  for  the  fifth 
day  twelve  and  a  half  cents,  for  the  seventh  sixty  cents, 
for  the  eighth  one  dollar  and  thirty-two  cents,  for  the 


1 86  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

ninth  one  dollar  and  four  cents.  Morse  offered  to  sell 
his  invention  to  the  government  for  $100,000,  but  the 
Postmaster-General  declined  the  offer,  stating  in  his 
report  that  the  service  "  had  not  satisfied  him  that  under 
any  rate  of  postage  that  could  be  adopted  its  revenues 
could  be  made  equal  to  its  expenditures." 

With  the  public  opening  of  the  line  between  Wash- 
ington and  Baltimore  the  practical  success  of  the  new 
electric  telegraph  was  assured.  The  Magnetic  Tele- 
graph Company  was  formed  to  carry  a  wire  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia,  and  thence  another  line  was  run 
to  Baltimore  in  1846.  The  telegraph  being  an  ac- 
complished fact,  pirates  of  the  patent  now  appeared, 
and  for  a  course  of  years  Morse  and  his  partners  had 
to  fight  for  their  rights.  Henry  O'Reilly,  who  had 
been  employed  in  building  the  first  lines,  contracted  to 
construct  another  from  Philadelphia  to  St.  Louis,  and 
when  that  was  finished  he  formed  a  company  known 
as  the  People's  Line,  to  run  to  New  Orleans.  He 
claimed  to  use  instruments  entirely  different  from  those 
patented  by  Morse,  and  so  to  be  free  from  the  payment 
of  royalties.  Morse  applied  for  an  injunction,  and  on 
appeal  the  Federal  Supreme  Court  decided  in  his 
favor.  Other  similar  suits  followed,  and  in  each  one 
the  decision  justified  Morse's  contention.  The  con- 
clusion was  that  even  though  other  men  had  known  of 
the  possibilities  by  experiment,  it  was  the  fact  that  he 
had  first  put  the  matter  into  practical  form  directed 
toward  a  specific  purpose,  and  hence  was  to  be  regarded 
in  law  as  the  inventor. 

The  telegraph  grew  with  the  country.     The  Western 


MORSE  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  187 

Union  Company  followed  the  stage-coach  across  the 
plains  to  California,  and  soon  the  frontier  towns  were 
linked  to  the  large  cities  of  the  East.  Other  men  took 
up  the  work  in  other  lines,  and  in  1854  Cyrus  W.  Field 
formed  the  Atlantic  Telegraph  Company  to  lay  a  cable 
between  America  and  Europe.  As  Morse  had  said 
when  he  first  began  seriously  to  study  the  subject  on 
board  the  Sully,  "If  it  will  go  ten  miles  without  stop- 
ping I  can  make  it  go  around  the  globe." 

The  inventor  found  himself  universally  honored,  and 
at  last  a  very  wealthy  man.  He  married  Miss  Griswold 
of  Poughkeepsie,  and  bought  an  estate  of  two  hundred 
acres  near  that  city.  He  was  given  degrees  by  Ameri- 
can and  European  universities  and  societies,  was 
made  a  member  of  the  French  Legion  of  Honor,  re- 
ceived orders  of  knighthood  from  the  rulers  of  Spain 
and  Italy,  Denmark,  Turkey,  and  Portugal.  In  1858 
the  Emperor  of  the  French  called  a  Congress  in  Paris 
to  honor  Morse,  and  the  Congress  awarded  him  a  gift 
of  400,000  francs  as  a  token  of  gratitude.  In  his 
eightieth  year  his  statue  in  bronze  was  placed  in 
Central  Park,  New  York,  and  his  countrymen  did  their 
utmost  to  show  him  their  appreciation  of  his  great 
achievement.  He  died  in  1872,  a  short  time  after  he 
had  unveiled  a  statue  of  Benjamin  Franklin  in  New 
York's  Printing-house  Square. 

Morse  was  the  inventor,  but  his  partner  Alfred  Vail 
had  a  great  share  in  making  the  present  telegraph. 
He  discarded  the  original  porte-rule  and  type  of  the 
transmitter  for  the  key  or  lever,  moved  up  and  down 
by  hand  to  complete  or  break  the  circuit.  He  perfected 


188  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

the  dot  and  dash  code,  he  invented  the  device  for 
embossing  the  message,  and  replaced  the  inking  pen 
by  a  metal  disc,  smeared  with  ink,  that  rolled  the  dots 
and  dashes  on  the  paper.  When  it  was  found  that  the 
telegraph  operators  would  read  the  signals  from  the 
clicking  of  the  marking  lever  instead  of  from  the  paper, 
he  made  an  instrument  which  had  no  marking  device, 
and  in  which  the  signals  were  sounded  by  the  striking 
of  the  lever  of  the  armature  against  the  metal  stops. 
This  "  sounder  "  soon  drove  out  the  old  Morse  recorder. 
The  present  instrument  is  in  its  mechanical  form  far 
more  the  work  of  Vail  than  of  Morse. 


XI 

McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER 
1809-1884 

THE  same  sturdy  pioneer  stock  that  gave  America 
Daniel  Boone  and  Lincoln,  Robert  Fulton  and  Andrew 
Jackson,  produced  the  inventor  of  the  reaper.  He 
came  of  a  line  of  resourceful,  fearless  Scotch-Irish 
settlers,  bone  of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  sinew  of 
those  generations  that  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  the 
United  States.  His  great-grandfather  had  been  an 
Indian  fighter  in  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  his  grand- 
father had  moved  to  Virginia  and  fought  in  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  his  father  had  built  a  log-house  and  tilled  a 
farm  in  that  strip  of  arable  Virginia  land  that  lay  be- 
tween the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 
He  prospered,  and  added  neighboring  farms  to  his 
original  holding  ;  he  had  two  grist-mills,  two  sawmills,  a 
blacksmith  shop,  a  smel ting-furnace,  and  a  distillery ; 
he  invented  new  makes  of  farm  machinery,  and  in 
addition  was  a  man  of  considerable  reading,  able  to 
hold  his  own  in  discussion  with  the  lawyers  and  the 
clergymen  of  the  countryside.  He  was  of  that  same 
well-developed  type  of  countryman  of  whom  so  many 
were  to  be  found  in  the  thirteen  original  states  and  the 
borderlands  to  the  west,  that  settler  type  which  was  the 
real  backbone  of  the  young  country. 


190  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  McCormick  house  and  farm  was  almost  a  small 
village  in  itself.  There  were  eight  children,  and  their 
shoes  were  cobbled,  their  clothes  woven,  their  very  beds 
and  chairs  and  tables  built  at  home.  Whatever  was 
needed  could  be  done,  the  family  were  always  busy 
within  doors  or  without,  and  the  spirit  of  helpfulness 
and  invention  was  in  the  air.  Into  such  a  setting 
Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  was  born  in  1809,  the  same 
year  that  saw  the  birth  of  Lincoln. 

He  went  to  one  of  the  Old  Field  Schools,  so  called 
because  it  was  built  on  ground  that  had  been  abandoned 
for  farm  use.  He  learned  what  other  boys  and  girls 
were  learning  in  simple  country  schools,  but  he 
studied  harder  than  most  of  them,  because  he  had  a 
keen  desire  to  understand  thoroughly  whatever  subject 
he  started.  He  saw  his  father  busy  in  his  workshop  at 
all  spare  moments,  and  he  took  him  as  a  pattern. 
After  weeks  of  work  he  brought  his  teacher  a  remarkably 
exact  map  of  the  world,  drawn  to  scale,  and  outlined 
in  ink  on  paper  pasted  on  linen,  and  fastened  on  two 
rollers.  The  work  showed  his  ingenious  fancy,  and 
perhaps  determined  his  father  to  have  him  educated  as 
a  surveyor.  At  eighteen  he  began  this  study,  and  had 
soon  won  a  good  reputation  in  the  neighborhood  as  an 
engineer.  Much  of  the  time  he  spent  in  the  fields  with 
his  father,  and  here  he  soon  learned  that  reaping  wheat 
was  no  easy  task,  and  that  swinging  a  wheat  cradle 
under  the  summer  sun  was  hard  on  both  the  temper 
and  the  back. 

Many  men  had  tried  to  lighten  the  farmer's  labor  in 
cutting  grain,  and  Cyrus  McCormick's  father  had  long 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  191 

had  the  ambition  to  invent  a  reaper.  He  had  succeeded 
in  building  a  cumbersome  machine  that  was  pushed  at 
the  back  by  a  pair  of  horses.  The  plan  of  the  machine 
was  well  enough  ;  it  consisted  of  a  row  of  short  curved 
sickles  that  were  fastened  to  upright  posts.  Revolving 
rods  drove  the  wheat  up  against  the  sickles.  The 
machine  acted  properly,  but  the  grain  would  not.  In- 
stead of  standing  up  straight  and  separated  to  be  cut 
the  wheat  would  more  often  come  in  great  bunches, 
twisting  about  the  sickles  and  getting  tangled  in  the 
machinery.  Mr.  McCormick  tried  the  machine  in 
the  harvesting  of  1816,  but  it  would  not  work,  and  had 
to  be  carted  away  to  the  workshop  as  an  invention 
gone  wrong.  But  he  persevered  with  this  idea,  and 
from  time  to  time  built  other  models.  After  a  number 
of  years  he  brought  forth  a  machine  that  would  cut,  but 
left  the  wheat  after  cutting  in  a  badly  tangled  shape. 
He  saw  that  this  was  not  sufficient.  The  reaper  to  be 
of  real  use  must  dispose  of  the  grain  properly  as  well 
as  shear  the  stalks. 

Cyrus  now  took  up  the  work  that  his  father  reluc- 
tantly abandoned.  He  decided  to  build  his  reaper  on 
entirely  new  lines.  First  he  dealt  with  the  problem  of 
how  to  separate  the  grain  that  was  to  be  cut  from  that 
which  was  to  be  left  standing.  This  he  finally  solved 
by  adding  a  curved  arm,  or  divider,  to  the  end  of  his 
reaper's  blade.  In  this  way  the  grain  that  was  to  be 
cut  would  be  properly  fed  to  the  knife. 

But  the  grain  was  apt  to  be  badly  tangled  before 
the  reaper  reached  it,  and  his  machine  must  be  able  to 
cut  that  which  was  pressed  down  and  out  of  shape  as 


I92  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

well  as  that  which  was  standing  straight.  To  accom- 
plish this  he  decided  that  his  knife  must  have  two 
motions,  one  a  forward  cut,  and  the  other  sideways. 
He  tried  many  plans  before  he  finally  hit  upon  one 
that  solved  this  for  him.  It  was  a  straight  knife  blade 
that  moved  forward  and  backward,  cutting  with  each 
motion.  This  idea  became  known  as  the  reciprocating 
blade. 

Yet  even  though  the  machine  could  divide  the  grain 
properly,  and  the  knife  cut  with  a  double  motion,  there 
was  the  possibility  that  the  blade  might  simply  press 
the  grain  down  and  so  slide  over  it.  This  was  espe- 
cially apt  to  be  the  case  after  a  rain,  or  when  the  grain 
had  been  badly  blown  about  by  the  wind.  The  prob- 
lem now  was  how  to  hold  it  upright.  He  found  the 
solution  lay  in  adding  a  row  of  indentations  that  pro- 
jected a  few  inches  from  the  edge  of  the  knife,  and 
acted  like  fingers  in  catching  the  stalks  and  holding 
them  in  place  to  be  cut 

These  three  ideas,  the  divider,  the  reciprocating 
blade,  and  the  fingers,  were  all  fundamental  devices  of 
the  machine  Cyrus  McCormick  was  building.  They 
all  met  the  question  of  how  the  grain  could  be  cut. 
To  these  he  next  added  a  revolving  reel,  that  would 
lift  any  grain  that  had  fallen  and  straighten  it,  and  a 
platform  to  catch  the  grain  as  it  was  cut  and  fell.  His 
idea  was  that  a  man  should  walk  along  beside  the 
reaper  and  rake  off  the  grain  as  it  fell  upon  the  plat- 
form. 

Two  more  devices,  and  his  first  machine  was  com- 
pleted. One  was  to  have  the  shafts  placed  on  the  out- 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  193 

side  of  the  reaper,  or  so  that  the  horse  would  pull  it 
sideways,  instead  of  having  to  push  it,  as  had  been  the 
case  with  his  father's  model.  The  other  was  to  have 
the  whole  machine  practically  operated  by  one  big 
wheel,  which  should  bear  the  weight  and  move  the 
knife  and  the  reel. 

It  had  taken  young  McCormick  many  months  to 
work  out  all  these  problems,  and  there  were  only  one 
or  two  weeks  each  year,  the  harvest  weeks,  when  he 
could  actually  try  his  machine.  He  wanted  to  use  it 
in  the  spring  of  1831,  but  he  found  that  the  work  of 
finishing  all  the  necessary  details  was  enormous.  He 
begged  his  father  to  leave  a  small  patch  of  wheat  for 
him  to  try  to  cut,  and  at  last,  one  day  in  July  of  that 
year,  he  drove  his  cumbersome  machine  into  the  field. 
All  his  family  watched  as  the  reaper  headed  toward 
the  grain.  They  saw  the  wheat  gathered  and  swept 
down  upon  the  knife,  they  saw  the  blade  move  back 
and  forth  and  cut  the  grain,  and  then  saw  it  fall  upon 
the  little  platform.  The  machine  worked  with  hitches, 
not  nearly  so  smoothly  nor  so  efficiently  as  it  should, 
but  it  did  work ;  it  gathered  the  grain  in  and  it  left  it  in 
good  shape  to  be  raked  off  the  platform.  The  trial 
proved  that  such  a  machine  could  be  made  to  do  the 
work,  and  that  was  all  that  the  inventor  wanted. 

He  drove  it  back  to  his  workshop  and  made  certain 
changes  in  the  reel  and  the  divider.  Then,  several 
days  later,  he  drove  it  over  to  the  little  settlement  at 
Steele's  Tavern,  and  cut  six  acres  of  oats  in  one  after- 
noon. That  was  a  marvelous  feat,  and  caused  great 
wonder  in  the  countryside,  but  the  harvesting  season 


I94  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

had  ended,  and  the  inventor  would  have  to  wait  a  year 
before  he  could  prove  the  use  of  his  machine  again. 

By  the  next  year  McCormick  was  ready  for  a  larger 
audience.  The  town  of  Lexington  lay  some  eighteen 
miles  south  of  his  home,  and  he  made  arrangements 
with  a  farmer  there,  named  John  Ruff,  to  give  an  exhi- 
bition of  his  reaper  in  the  latter's  field.  Over  a  hundred 
people  were  present  when  McCormick  arrived,  all 
curious  to  see  what  could  be  done  with  the  complicated- 
looking  machine.  Many  of  them  were  harvesters 
themselves,  and  none  too  eager  to  see  a  mechanical 
device  enter  into  competition  for  their  work.  The  field 
was  hilly  and  rough,  and  the  reaper  careened  about  in 
it  like  a  ship  in  a  gale.  The  farmer  grew  indignant, 
and  protested  that  McCormick  would  ruin  all  his 
wheat,  and  the  laborers  began  to  jeer  and  joke  at  the 
machine's  expense.  The  exhibition  gave  every  sign 
of  proving  a  failure  when  one  of  the  spectators  called 
out  that  he  owned  the  next  field  and  would  be  glad  to 
give  McCormick  a  chance  there.  This  field  was  level, 
and  the  young  man  quickly  turned  his  reaper  into  it. 
Before  sunset  he  had  cut  six  acres  of  wheat,  and  con- 
vinced his  audience  that  his  machine  was  a  great  im- 
provement over  the  old  method.  That  evening  he 
drove  the  reaper  to  the  court-house  square  and  ex- 
plained its  working  to  the  towns  people.  Very  few  of 
them  saw  how  it  was  to  revolutionize  the  farmer's  labor, 
but  one  or  two  did.  Professor  Bradshaw,  of  the  local 
academy,  studied  the  machine,  and  then  stated  publicly 
that  in  his  opinion,  "  This  machine  is  worth  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars." 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  195 

But  if  Cyrus  McCormick  had  been  fortunate  in  grow- 
ing up  on  a  farm  where  he  could  study  the  problem  of 
cutting  grain  at  first  hand  he  was  now  to  find  that  he 
was  not  so  fortunate  when  it  came  to  building  other 
reapers  and  marketing  them.  His  home  was  four  days' 
travel  from  Richmond.  He  must  have  money  to  get 
the  iron  for  his  machines,  to  advertise,  and  to  pay 
agents  to  try  to  sell  them.  He  had  very  little  money. 
He  did  advertise  in  the  Lexington  Union  in  September, 
1833,  offering  reapers  for  sale  at  fifty  dollars ;  but  there 
were  no  answers  to  his  advertisements.  So  skeptical 
were  the  farmers  that  it  was  seven  years  before  one 
bought  a  reaper  of  him.  But  he  had  faith  enough  in 
his  invention  to  take  out  a  patent  on  it  in  1834. 

Until  now  McCormick  had  depended  on  the  farm 
for  his  livelihood,  but  there  was  little  profit  in  this,  and 
he  turned  his  attention  to  a  deposit  of  iron  ore  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  built  a  furnace  and  began  to  make 
iron.  This  succeeded  until  the  panic  of  1837  reached 
the  Virginia  country  and  brought  debt  and  lowered 
prices  with  it.  Cyrus  surrendered  his  farm  and  what 
other  property  he  had  to  his  creditors.  None  of  them 
was  sufficiently  interested  in  the  crude  reaper  to  con- 
sider it  worth  taking. 

But  the  inventor  hung  on  to  his  faith  in  this  machine, 
although  no  one  appeared  to  buy  it,  and  the  expense 
he  had  gone  to  in  making  it  had  practically  bankrupted 
him.  And  his  faith  met  with  its  reward,  for  one  day  in 
1840  a  stranger  rode  up  to  the  door  of  his  workshop 
and  offered  fifty  dollars  for  a  reaper.  He  had  seen  one 
of  the  machines  on  exhibition,  and  had  decided  to  try 


I96  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

it.  A  little  later  two  other  farmers  who  lived  on  the 
James  River  appeared  and  gave  McCormick  two  more 
orders.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  in 
the  harvest  of  1840  three  of  his  reapers  were  having  a 
trying  out. 

The  next  year  he  was  busy  trying  to  perfect  a  blade 
that  would  cut  wet  grain.  This  took  him  weeks  of 
experimenting,  but  at  last  he  found  that  a  serrated 
edge  of  a  certain  pattern  would  produce  the  effect  he 
wanted.  He  added  this  to  the  new  machines  he  was 
building,  fixed  the  price  of  the  reaper  at  one  hundred 
dollars,  and  in  1842  sold  seven  machines,  in  1843 
twenty-nine,  and  in  1844  fifty.  At  last  he  had  justified 
himself,  and  the  log  workshop  had  become  a  busy 
factory. 

An  invention  of  such  great  value  to  the  farmer 
naturally  advertised  itself  through  the  country  districts. 
Men  who  heard  of  a  machine  that  would  cut  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  acres  of  wheat  in  less  than  eight 
days — as  happened  in  one  case — naturally  decided  that 
it  was  worth  investigating.  And  those  who  already 
owned  machines  saw  a  chance  to  make  money  by  sell- 
ing to  their  neighbors.  One  man  paid  McCormick 
$i»333  for  the  reaper  agency  of  eight  counties,  another 
$500  for  the  right  in  five  other  counties,  and  a  business 
man  offered  $2,500  for  the  agency  in  southern  Vir- 
ginia. Meantime  orders  were  coming  in  from  the  dis- 
tant states  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  and  Iowa, 
and  the  little  home  factory  was  being  pushed  to  the 
utmost. 

But  it  was  not  only  difficult  to  obtain  the  necessary 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  197 

materials  for  building  reapers  on  the  remote  Virginia 
farm,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  ship  the  machines 
ordered  in  time  for  the  harvests.  Those  that  went 
west  had  to  be  taken  by  wagon  to  Scottsville,  sent 
down  the  canal  to  Richmond,  put  on  shipboard  for  the 
long  journey  down  the  James  River  to  the  Atlantic  and 
so  by  ocean  to  New  Orleans,  changed  there  to  a  river 
steamer  that  should  take  them  up  the  Mississippi  and 
by  the  Ohio  River  to  the  distributing  point  of  Cincin- 
nati. Many  delays  might  happen  in  such  a  long  trip, 
and  many  delays  did  happen,  and  in  several  cases  the 
reapers  did  not  reach  the  farmers  who  had  ordered 
them  until  long  after  the  harvesting  season  was  over. 
McCormick  saw  that  he  must  build  his  reapers  in  a 
more  central  place. 

At  that  time  labor  was  very  scarce  in  the  great 
central  region  of  the  country,  and  the  farms  were 
enormous.  The  wheat  was  going  to  waste,  for  there 
were  not  enough  scythes  and  sickles  to  cut  it. 
McCormick  started  on  a  trip  through  the  middle  West, 
and  what  he  saw  convinced  him  that  his  reaper  would 
soon  be  an  absolute  necessity  on  every  farm.  All  he 
needed  was  to  find  the  best  point  for  building  his 
machines  and  shipping  them.  He  studied  this  matter 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  finally  decided  that  the 
strategic  place  was  the  little  town  of  Chicago,  situated 
on  one  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  half-way  between  the 
prairies  of  the  West  and  the  commercial  depots  and 
factories  of  the  eastern  seaboard. 

Chicago  in  1847  was  still  little  more  than  a  frontier 
town.  It  had  fought  gamely  with  floods  and  droughts, 


I98  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

with  cholera  and  panics,  with  desperadoes  and  with 
land  thieves.  But  men  saw  that  it  was  bound  to  grow, 
for  railroads  would  have  to  come  to  bring  the  wheat 
and  others  to  carry  it  away,  and  that  meant  that  some 
day  it  would  be  a  great  metropolis.  McCormick,  like 
most  of  the  other  business  builders  who  were  stream- 
ing into  Chicago,  only  wanted  credit  to  enable  him  to 
build  and  sell  his  goods,  and  he  was  fortunate  enough 
to  find  a  rich  and  prominent  citizen  named  William  B. 
Ogden,  who  was  ready  to  give  him  credit  and  enter 
into  partnership  with  him. 

Ogden  gave  McCormick  $25,000  for  a  half  interest 
in  the  business  of  making  reapers,  and  started  at  once 
to  build  a  factory.  At  last  the  inventor  was  firmly 
established.  He  arranged  to  sell  five  hundred  reapers 
for  the  harvest  of  1848,  and  as  one  after  another  was 
sent  out  into  the  great  wheat  belts  and  set  up  and 
tried,  the  farmers  who  saw  them  decided  that  the 
reapers  spelled  prosperity  for  them.  The  business 
grew,  and  at  the  end  of  two  years,  when  the  partners 
found  it  wiser  to  dissolve  their  firm,  McCormick  was 
able  to  tell  Ogden  that  he  would  pay  him  back  the 
$25,000  that  he  had  invested,  and  give  him  $25,000 
more  for  interest  and  profits.  Ogden  accepted,  and 
McCormick  became  sole  owner  of  the  business. 

Cyrus  McCormick  was  not  only  an  inventor,  but  a 
business-builder  of  the  rarest  talent,  one  of  the  great 
pioneers  in  a  field  that  was  later  to  be  cultivated  in  the 
United  States  to  a  remarkable  degree.  He  knew  he 
had  a  machine  that  would  lessen  labor  and  increase 
wealth  wherever  wheat  was  grown,  and  he  felt  that  it 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  199 

was  his  mission  to  see  that  the  reaper  should  do  its 
share  in  the  progress  of  the  world.  In  that  sense  he 
was  more  than  a  mere  business  man ;  but  in  another 
sense  he  was  a  gigantic  business-builder.  Just  as  he 
had  studied  the  problem  of  cutting  wheat  with  the 
object  of  producing  the  most  efficient  machine  possible, 
so  he  now  studied  the  problem  of  selling  his  reapers  in 
such  a  way  that  every  farmer  should  own  one.  He 
believed  in  liberal  advertising,  and  he  had  posters 
printed  with  a  picture  of  the  reaper  at  the  top,  and 
below  it  a  formal  guarantee  warranting  the  machine's 
performance  absolutely.  There  was  a  space  beneath 
this  for  the  signature  of  the  farmer  who  bought,  and 
the  agent  who  sold,  and  two  witnesses.  The  price  of 
the  reaper  was  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars,  and  the 
buyer  paid  down  thirty  dollars,  and  the  balance  at  the 
end  of  six  months,  provided  the  reaper  would  cut  one 
and  a  half  acres  an  hour,  and  fulfil  the  other  require- 
ments. This  guarantee,  with  a  chance  to  obtain  the 
money  back  if  the  purchase  was  unsatisfactory,  was  a 
new  idea,  and  appealed  to  every  one  as  a  most  sincere 
and  honorable  way  of  doing  business.  More  than  this, 
he  sold  for  a  fixed  price,  which  was  in  many  respects  a 
new  method  of  selling,  and  he  printed  in  newspapers 
and  farm  journals  letters  he  had  received  from  farmers 
telling  of  their  satisfaction  with  the  reaper.  In  these 
new  ways  he  laid  the  foundation  of  an  enormous  busi- 
ness. 

The  rush  to  the  gold  fields  of  California  in  1849  and 
the  resulting  settlement  of  the  far  western  country  made 
Chicago  even  more  central  than  it  had  been  before. 


2OO 


HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 


But,  although  the  advertisements  of  the  McCormick 
reaper  were  scattered  everywhere,  many  farmers  would 
put  off  buying  until  the  harvesting  season  had  almost 
come,  and  when  it  was  too  late  to  get  the  machines  from 
the  central  factory.  Therefore  McCormick  had  agents 
and  built  warehouses  in  every  farming  district,  and 
these  agents  were  given  a  free  rein  in  their  own  locality, 
their  instructions  being  to  see  that  every  farmer  who 
needed  a  reaper  was  given  the  easiest  opportunity  to 
get  one.  The  price  was  a  fixed  one,  but  McCormick 
was  patient  with  the  purchasers.  He  gave  them  a 
chance  to  pay  for  the  reapers  with  the  proceeds  of  their 
harvests.  He  held  that  it  was  better  that  he  should 
wait  for  the  money  than  that  the  farmers  should  lack 
the  machines  that  would  enable  them  to  make  the  most 
of  their  fields  of  grain.  "  I  have  never  yet  sued  a 
farmer  for  the  price  of  a  reaper,"  he  stated  in  1848,  and 
he  held  to  that  policy  as  steadfastly  as  he  could.  As  a 
result  he  soon  gained  the  farmers'  confidence,  and  his 
name  became  identified  with  square,  and  even  with 
lenient,  dealing  with  all  classes  of  purchasers.  He  lost 
little  by  it,  and  in  the  long  run  the  wide-spread  advertis- 
ing of  this  policy  of  business  proved  an  invaluable 
asset. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  no  rival  reapers  were 
put  upon  the  market.  Many  were,  and  to  meet  some 
of  these  McCormick  made  use  of  what  became  known 
as  the  Field  Test.  He  would  instruct  his  agents  to 
issue  invitations  to  his  rivals  to  meet  him  in  competi- 
tion. Then  the  different  makes  of  reapers  would  show 
how  many  acres  of  grain  they  could  cut  in  an  afternoon 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  201 

before  an  audience  of  the  neighboring  farmers.  Judges 
were  appointed  to  decide  as  to  the  merits  of  the  differ- 
ent machines,  and  in  most  of  the  tests  McCormick's 
reaper  outdistanced  all  its  rivals.  In  one  such  meeting 
it  is  said  that  forty  machines  competed.  Such  shows 
were  the  best  possible  form  of  advertising,  but  in  time 
they  degenerated  into  absurd  performances.  Trick 
machines  of  unwieldy  strength  were  built  secretly,  and 
reapers  were  driven  into  growths  of  young  trees,  and 
were  fastened  together  and  then  pulled  apart  to  prove 
which  was  the  stronger.  At  last  it  was  realized  that 
the  field  tests  were  no  longer  fair,  and  McCormick  gave 
them  up. 

So  important  an  invention  as  the  reaper  was  certain 
to  have  many  improvements  made  to  it.  For  a  number 
of  years,  however,  the  only  additions  that  were  made 
to  the  original  model  were  seats  for  the  driver  and 
raker.  The  machine  did  the  work  of  the  original  man 
with  the  sickle  or  scythe  and  that  of  the  cradler,  and 
having  cut  the  grain  left  it  in  loose  piles  on  the  ground. 
But  it  still  had  to  be  raked  up  and  bound,  and  a 
number  of  inventors  were  busy  trying  to  perfect 
mechanical  devices  that  would  do  this  work  too.  A 
man  named  Jearum  Atkins  invented  a  contrivance  that 
was  called  the  "  Iron  Man,"  which  was  a  post  fastened 
to  the  reaper,  having  two  iron  arms  that  swept  round 
and  round  and  brushed  the  grain  from  the  platform  as 
fast  as  it  was  cut  and  had  fallen.  This  plan  was  very 
clumsy,  but  improvements  were  made  so  rapidly  that 
by  1860  the  market  was  filled  with  various  patterns  of 
self-raking  reapers. 


202  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  problem  of  binding  the  grain  was  more  difficult. 
This  had  always  been  hard  labor,  taking  a  great  deal 
of  time  and  requiring  three  or  four  men  to  every 
reaper.  The  first  step  toward  a  self-binder  was  the 
addition  of  a  foot-board  at  the  back  of  the  reaper,  on 
which  a  man  might  stand  and  fasten  the  grain  into 
sheaves  as  it  fell.  This  was  a  little  better  than  the  old 
method,  but  only  a  little.  It  took  less  time,  but  it  was 
still  very  hard  and  slow  work. 

McCormick  was  deep  in  a  study  of  this  matter  when 
one  day  a  man  named  James  Withington  came  to  him 
from  Wisconsin,  and  announced  that  he  had  a  machine 
that  could  automatically  bind  grain.  McCormick  had 
been  working  night  and  day  over  his  own  plan,  and 
when  the  inventor  began  to  explain  he  fell  asleep. 
When  he  woke,  Withington  had  left.  McCormick  at 
once  sent  one  of  his  men  to  the  inventor's  Wisconsin 
home,  and,  with  many  apologies,  begged  him  to  come 
back.  Withington  did,  and  showed  McCormick  a 
wonderful  machine,  one  made  of  two  arms  of  steel  that 
would  catch  each  bundle  of  grain,  pass  a  wire  about  it 
and  twist  the  ends  of  the  wire,  cut  it  loose,  and  throw  it 
to  the  ground.  Here  was  an  invention  that  would 
more  than  double  the  usefulness  of  the  reaper,  and  one 
that  seems  quite  as  remarkable  as  the  reaper  itself. 
McCormick  at  once  contracted  with  Withington  for 
this  binder,  and  tried  it  on  an  Illinois  farm  the  following 
July.  It  worked  perfectly,  cutting  fifty  acres  of  grain 
and  binding  it  into  sheaves.  At  last  only  one  person 
was  needed  to  harvest  the  wheat,  the  one  who  sat 
upon  the  driver's  seat  and  simply  had  to  guide  the 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  203 

horses.  A  small  boy  or  girl  could  do  all  the  work  that 
it  had  taken  a  score  of  men  to  accomplish  twenty  years 
before. 

Now  it  seemed  as  if  the  reaper  was  complete,  and 
nothing  could  be  added  to  increase  its  efficiency. 
McCormick  had  seen  to  it  that  the  whirr  of  his  machine 
was  heard  in  every  wheat  field  of  the  United  States, 
and  was  busily  extending  the  reign  of  the  reaper  to  the 
great  grain  districts  of  Russia,  India,  and  South 
America.  Then,  in  the  spring  of  1880,  William  Deer- 
ing  built  and  sold  3,000  self-binding  machines  that  used 
twine  instead  of  wire  to  fasten  the  sheaves,  and  as  the 
news  of  this  novelty  spread  the  farmers  declared  that 
the  wire  of  the  old  binders  had  cut  their  hands,  had 
torn  their  wheat,  had  proved  hard  to  manage  in  the 
flour-mills,  and  that  henceforth  they  must  have  twine- 
binders. 

McCormick  realized  that  he  must  give  the  farmers 
what  they  demanded,  and  he  looked  about  for  a  man 
who  could  invent  a  new  method  of  binding  with 
twine.  He  found  him  in  Marquis  L.  Gorham,  who  per- 
fected a  new  twine-binder,  and  added  a  device  by 
which  all  the  sheaves  bound  were  turned  out  in  uniform 
size.  By  the  next  year  McCormick  was  pushing  his 
Gorham  binder  on  the  market,  and  the  farmers  who 
had  wavered  in  their  allegience  to  his  reaper  were 
returning  to  the  McCormick  fold. 

The  battle  of  rival  reapers  had  been  long  and  costly. 
From  the  building  of  his  factory  in  Chicago  McCormick 
had  been  engaged  in  continuous  lawsuits  with  com- 
petitors. His  original  patent  had  expired  in  1848,  and 


204  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

he  had  used  every  effort  to  have  it  extended.  The 
battle  was  fought  through  the  lower  courts,  through 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  in  Congress.  The  greatest 
lawyers  of  the  time  were  retained  on  one  side  of  the 
reaper  struggle  or  the  other.  His  rivals  combined 
and  raised  a  great  fund  to  defeat  his  claims.  He  spent 
a  fortune,  but  his  patents  were  not  renewed,  and  com- 
petition was  thrown  wide  open.  With  the  invention  of 
the  twine-binder  the  patent  war  burst  out  afresh,  and 
again  the  courts  were  called  upon  for  decisions  between 
the  rivals.  But  by  now  the  competition  had  become 
so  keen  and  the  cost  of  manufacturing  so  heavy  that  the 
field  dwindled  quickly.  When  the  war  over  the  twine- 
binder  ended  there  were  only  twenty-two  competing 
firms  left ;  before  that  there  had  been  over  a  hundred. 

The  reaper  had  been  primarily  necessary  in  America, 
because  here  farm  labor  was  very  scarce,  and  the  wheat 
fields  enormously  productive.  In  fact  the  growth  of 
the  newly  opened  Western  country  must  have  been  in- 
definitely retarded  if  men  had  had  to  cut  the  grain  by 
hand  and  harvest  it  in  the  primitive  manner.  The 
reaper  was  a  very  vital  factor  in  the  development  of 
that  country,  and  McCormick  deserved  the  credit  of 
being  one  of  the  greatest  profit-builders  of  the  land. 

In  Europe  and  Asia  labor  was  plentiful,  and  the 
reaper  had  to  win  its  way  more  slowly.  McCormick 
showed  his  machine  at  the  great  international  exhibi- 
tions and  gradually  induced  the  large  landowners  to 
consider  it.  Practical  demonstration  proved  its  value( 
and  it  made  its  appearance  in  the  fields  of  European 
Russia  and  Siberia,  in  Germany  and  France  and  the 


McCORMICK  AND  THE  REAPER  205 

Slavic  countries,  in  India,  Australia,  and  the  Argentine, 
and  at  last  wherever  wheat  was  to  be  cut.  It  trebled 
the  output  of  grain,  and  the  welfare  of  the  people  has 
proven  largely  dependent  on  their  food  supply.  It  has 
been  an  invention  of  the  greatest  economic  value  to  the 
world. 


XII 

HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE 

1819-1867 

THE  needs  of  his  times,  and  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  lives,  have  often  set  the  inventor's  mind 
working  along  the  line  of  his  achievement.  It  was  so 
with  Elias  Howe,  who  built  the  first  sewing-machine. 
A  hard- working  man,  and  not  overstrong,  he  would 
return  to  his  home  from  the  machine-shop  where  he 
was  employed,  and  throw  himself  on  the  bed  night 
after  night  to  rest.  Each  night  he  watched  his  young 
wife  sewing  to  clothe  their  three  children  and  add  a 
little  something  to  the  family  income.  With  a  strong 
taste  for  mechanics  it  was  natural  that  he  should 
wonder  if  there  were  not  some  way  of  lightening  the 
burden  of  so  much  needlework. 

He  had  been  brought  up  in  surroundings  that 
naturally  impressed  him  with  the  value  of  looms  and 
new  appliances  for  spinning  and  weaving.  He  under- 
stood the  various  processes  of  handling  wool  and 
cotton,  although  his  own  work  lay  outside  them. 
His  father  had  been  a  miller  in  the  small  Massachusetts 
town  of  Spencer,  where  Elias  was  born  in  1819.  New 
England  was  already  building  her  textile  factories,  and 
when  he  was  only  six  the  boy  joined  his  brothers  and 
sisters  at  the  work  of  sticking  wire  teeth  through  the 
straps  of  leather  that  were  then  used  for  cotton-cards. 


HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE       207 

What  he  learned  from  books  he  had  to  pick  up  during 
a  few  weeks  each  summer  at  the  district  school.  His 
health  was  delicate,  and  he  was  lame,  unfitted  to  be  a 
farmer,  and  his  best  place  seemed  to  be  in  his  father's 
mill.  But  he  was  ambitious,  and  when  he  was  sixteen, 
a  friend  having  brought  him  glowing  tales  of  the  great 
cotton-mills  in  the  fast-growing  city  of  Lowell,  he 
decided  to  seek  his  fortune  there.  The  panic  of  1837 
closed  the  mills,  and  Howe  found  his  course  deflected 
to  work  in  a  machine-shop  in  Cambridge.  By  the 
time  he  came  of  age  he  had  married  and  was  living  in 
Boston,  working  as  a  mechanic  to  support  his  family. 
Of  a  speculative  turn  of  mind,  he  was  constantly  sug- 
gesting improvements  at  the  shop,  and  his  watching 
his  wife  labor  with  needle  and  thread  turned  his 
thoughts  in  the  direction  of  a  machine  for  sewing. 

The  idea  was  not  a  new  one,  but  the  men  who  had 
studied  it  had  decided  that  there  were  too  many  diffi- 
culties to  overcome.  Howe  took  up  the  matter  as  a 
pastime,  giving  his  spare  moments  to  it,  and  talking  it 
over  with  his  wife  in  the  evenings  when  he  was  not  too 
tired.  Naturally  enough  what  he  tried  to  do  was  to 
imitate  the  action  of  the  hand  in  sewing.  His  idea  was 
to  make  a  machine  that  would  thrust  a  needle  through 
the  cloth  and  then  push  it  back  again,  working  up  and 
down.  Therefore  his  first  needle  was  sharp  at  both 
ends,  and  had  its  eye  in  the  middle.  He  decided  that 
he  could  only  use  very  coarse  thread,  as  the  constant 
motion  would  surely  snap  any  fine  thread.  But  a 
year's  experimenting  convinced  him  that  this  simple 
up-and-down  thrust  was  too  primitive  a  motion,  and 


208  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

that  the  needle  must  be  made  to  form  a  different  sort 
of  stitch.  He  tried  one  method  after  another,  and 
finally  hit  upon  the  idea  of  making  use  of  two  threads, 
and  forming  the  stitch  by  means  of  a  shuttle  and  a 
curved  needle  having  the  eye  near  the  point.  He 
made  a  model,  in  wood  and  wire,  of  this  first  sewing- 
machine,  in  October,  1844,  and  found  that  it  would 
work. 

An  early  account  of  Howe's  first  sewing-machine 
says,  "  He  used  a  needle  and  a  shuttle  of  novel  construc- 
tion, and  combined  them  with  holding  surfaces,  feed 
mechanism,  and  other  devices  as  they  had  never  before 
been  brought  together  in  one  machine.  .  .  .  One 
of  the  principal  features  of  Mr.  Howe's  invention  is  the 
combination  of  a  grooved  needle  having  an  eye  near 
its  point,  and  vibrating  in  the  direction  of  its  length, 
with  a  side-pointed  shuttle  for  effecting  a  locked  stitch, 
and  forming  with  the  threads,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
cloth,  a  firm  and  lasting  seam  not  easily  ripped." 

Howe  had  now  decided  to  give  all  his  time  to  in- 
troducing his  sewing-machine.  He  gave  up  his  posi- 
tion in  the  machine-shop,  and  moved  his  family  to  his 
father's  house  in  Cambridge.  There  his  father  was 
employed  in  cutting  palm-leaf  for  the  manufacture  of 
hats.  The  son  had  a  lathe  put  in  the  garret,  and  began 
to  make  the  various  parts  that  were  needed  for  his 
sewing-machine.  He  did  any  work  he  could  find  by 
the  day  to  supply  his  family  with  food  and  clothing, 
but  it  proved  a  very  hard  battle.  His  father's  shop 
burned,  and  the  whole  family  seemed  on  the  brink  of 
ruin.  The  young  inventor  was  in  a  very  difficult  situa- 


HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE       209 

tion.  He  was  confident  that  he  had  a  machine  that 
should,  if  properly  handled,  bring  him  in  a  fortune,  but 
he  must  have  some  money  to  buy  the  iron  and  steel 
that  were  essential  to  its  building,  and  he  must  devise  a 
way  of  interesting  some  capitalist  in  it  sufficiently  to 
enable  him  to  put  it  on  the  market.  Meantime  he 
must  contrive  to  provide  for  his  family,  who  were  now 
practically  without  shelter. 

Fortunately,  at  this  point,  a  Cambridge  dealer  in 
coal  and  wood,  by  the  name  of  Fisher,  heard  of  Howe's 
machine,  and  asked  to  see  it.  Howe  jumped  at  the 
opportunity,  explained  its  mechanism,  and  told  how 
he  was  situated.  Mr.  Fisher  thought  the  model  had 
possibilities,  and  agreed  to  provide  board  for  the 
inventor  and  his  family,  to  give  the  young  man  a 
workshop  in  his  own  house,  and  to  advance  him  the 
sum  of  $500,  which  Howe  said  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  pay  for  the  construction  of  such  a  machine  as  could 
be  shown  to  the  public.  For  his  assistance  Fisher  was 
to  receive  a  half-interest  in  a  patent  for  the  sewing- 
machine  if  Howe  could  obtain  one.  This  arrangement 
proved  Howe's  salvation,  and  in  December,  1844,  he 
moved  into  his  new  friend's  house. 

He  worked  all  that  winter,  meeting  the  many  practical 
difficulties  that  arose  as  he  progressed  with  his  machine, 
and  devising  solutions  for  overcoming  each.  He 
worked  all  day,  and  many  a  time  long  into  the  night. 
His  machine  progressed  so  well  that  by  April,  1845,  he 
found  that  it  would  sew  a  seam  four  yards  long.  The 
machine  was  entirely  completed  by  the  latter  part  of 
May,  and  its  work  proved  satisfactory  to  both  partners. 


210  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Howe  sewed  the  seams  of  two  woolen  suits  with  it, 
one  for  himself,  and  one  for  Fisher,  and  it  was  declared 
that  the  mechanical  sewing  was  so  well  done  that  it 
promised  to  outlast  the  cloth.  There  was  no  longer 
any  doubt  that  Howe  had  invented  a  machine  that 
would  lighten  labor  to  a  very  great  degree. 

He  took  out  his  first  patent  on  the  sewing-machine 
toward  the  end  of  1845.  But  when  he  tried  to  introduce 
his  invention  he  met  the  same  difficulties  that  had 
faced  all  men  who  tried  to  supplant  hand  labor  by  any 
mechanical  process.  The  tailors  of  Boston  to  whom 
he  showed  it  were  willing  to  admit  its  efficiency,  but 
told  him  that  he  could  never  secure  its  general  use,  as 
such  a  proceeding  would  ruin  their  business.  Every 
one  admired  the  sewing-machine  and  praised  Howe's  in- 
genuity, but  no  one  would  buy  one.  The  opposition  to 
the  completed  machine  seemed  insuperable,  and  Fisher, 
believing  it  to  be  so,  at  length  withdrew  from  his 
partnership  with  Howe.  The  latter  and  his  family  had 
to  move  back  again  to  his  father's  house. 

To  make  a  living  Howe  took  a  position  as  a  locomo- 
tive engineer,  leaving  his  invention  unused  at  home. 
This  work  proved  too  hard,  his  health  broke  down,  and 
he  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  position.  In  his  en- 
forced idleness  he  began  to  devise  new  ways  of  selling 
his  machine,  and  finally  decided  to  send  his  brother 
Amasa  to  England,  and  see  if  he  could  not  interest 
some  one  there  in  the  invention.  His  brother  was- 
willing  to  do  this,  and  arrived  in  London,  with  a 
sewing-machine,  in  October,  1846.  He  showed  it  to  a 
man  named  William  Thomas,  who  became  interested 


ELIAS  HOWE'S  SEWING  MACHINE 


HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE      211 

in  it,  offered  $1,250  for  it,  and  also  offered  to  employ 
Elias  Howe  in  his  business  of  umbrella  and  corset  maker. 

Howe  decided  that  this  position  was  preferable  to  his 
idleness  in  Cambridge,  and  accepted  it.  He  sailed  for 
England,  and  entered  the  factory  of  William  Thomas. 
But,  although  Thomas  had  taken  a  very  lively  interest 
in  Howe's  sewing-machine,  he  did  not  treat  the  inventor 
well.  For  eight  months  Howe  worked  for  him,  and 
meantime  he  had  sent  for  his  wife  and  three  children, 
and  they  had  arrived  in  London.  But  eight  months 
was  the  limit  of  his  endurance  of  his  new  master's 
tyranny,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  gave  up  his  posi- 
tion. Matters  seemed  tending  worse  and  worse  with 
him,  and  the  situation  of  the  Howe  family  in  London, 
almost  penniless,  grew  daily  more  and  more  precarious. 

His  family  at  home  sent  Howe  a  little  money  before 
his  earnings  were  entirely  spent,  and  he  used  this  to  buy 
passage  for  his  wife  and  children  back  to  the  United 
States.  He  himself  stayed  in  London,  believing  there 
were  better  chances  for  the  sale  of  his  machine  there 
than  in  America.  But  his  pursuit  of  fortune  in  England 
proved  but  the  search  for  the  rainbow's  pot  of  gold. 
There  was  no  market  for  his  wares,  and  after  months 
of  actual  destitution  he  pawned  the  model  of  his  sewing- 
machine  and  even  his  patent  papers  in  order  to  secure 
funds  to  pay  his  passage  home.  Tragedy  dogged  his 
footsteps.  He  reached  New  York  with  only  a  few 
small  coins  in  his  pocket,  and  received  word  that  his 
wife  was  lying  desperately  ill  in  Cambridge.  His 
own  strength  was  spent,  and  he  had  to  wait  several 
days  before  he  had  the  money  to  pay  his  railroad  fare 


212  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

to  Boston.  Soon  after  he  reached  home  his  wife  died. 
Blow  after  blow  had  fallen  on  him  until  he  was  almost 
crushed. 

Even  his  hard-won  invention  seemed  now  about  to 
be  snatched  from  him.  Certain  mechanics  in  New 
England,  who  had  heard  descriptions  of  his  model,  built 
machines  on  its  lines,  and  sold  them.  The  newspapers 
learned  of  these,  and  began  to  suggest  their  use  in  a 
number  of  industries.  Howe  looked  about  him,  saw 
the  sewing-machine  growing  in  favor,  heard  it  praised, 
and  realized  that  it  had  been  actually  stolen  from  him. 
He  bestirred  himself,  found  patent  attorneys  who  were 
willing  to  look  into  his  patents,  and  when  they  pro- 
nounced them  unassailable,  found  money  enough  to 
defend  them.  He  began  several  suits  to  establish  his 
claims  in  August,  1850,  and  at  about  the  same  time 
formed  a  partnership  with  a  New  Yorker  named  Bliss, 
who  agreed  to  try  to  sell  the  machines  if  Howe  would 
open  a  shop  and  build  them  in  New  York. 

Howe's  claims  to  the  invention  of  the  sewing-machine 
were  positively  established  by  the  courts  in  1854.  The 
machine  was  now  well  known,  and  its  value  as  a  money- 
maker very  apparent.  But  the  workers  in  cheap 
clothing  shops  organized  to  prevent  the  introduction 
of  the  machines,  claiming  that  they  would  destroy  their 
livelihood.  Labor  leaders  took  up  the  slogan,  and  led 
the  men  and  women  workers  in  what  were  known  as 
the  Sewing-machine  Riots.  In  the  few  shops  where 
the  machines  were  actually  introduced  they  were  injured 
or  destroyed  by  the  workmen.  The  pressure  became 
so  great  that  the  larger  establishments  ceased  their  use, 


HOWE  AND  THE  SEWING-MACHINE      213 

and  only  the  small  shops,  that  employed  a  few  workers, 
were  able  to  continue  using  the  new  machine.  In  spite 
of  its  recognized  value  it  looked  as  if  the  sewing- 
machine  could  not  prove  a  financial  success,  and  when 
Howe's  partner  Bliss  died  in  1855  the  inventor  was 
able  to  buy  his  share  in  the  business  from  his  heirs  for 
a  very  small  sum. 

Opposition,  even  of  the  most  strenuous  order,  has 
never  been  able  to  retard  for  long  the  use  of  an  inven- 
tion that  simplifies  industry.  If  a  machine  is  made  that 
will  in  an  hour  do  the  work  that  formerly  required 
several  days'  hand  labor  that  machine  is  certain  to  dis- 
place that  hand  labor.  The  workers  may  protest,  but 
industrial  progress  demands  the  more  economic 
method.  So  it  was  with  the  sewing-machine.  The 
riots  died  away,  the  labor  leaders  turned  to  other  fields, 
and  one  by  one  the  clothing  factories  installed  the  new 
machines.  Howe  had  the  patience  to  wait,  and  in  one 
way  and  another  obtained  the  sinews  of  war  to  sue  the 
infringers  of  his  patents.  The  waiting  was  worth 
while.  He  ultimately  forced  all  other  manufacturers 
of  sewing-machines  to  pay  him  for  their  products.  In 
six  years  his  royalties  increased  from  $300  a  year  to 
over  $200,000  a  year.  His  machine  was  shown  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  of  1867,  and  was  awarded  a  gold 
medal,  and  Howe  himself  was  given  the  ribbon  of  the 
French  Legion  of  Honor. 

The  wheel  of  fortune  has  turned  quickly  for  many 
inventors,  but  perhaps  never  more  completely  than  it 
did  for  Elias  Howe.  The  man  who  had  pawned  his 
goods  in  London,  and  had  reached  New  York  with  less 


214  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

than  a  dollar  in  his  pocket,  had  an  income  of  $200,000 
a  year.  He  who  had  been  rebuffed  by  the  tailors  of 
Boston  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  great  men  of  his 
generation,  and  one  who,  instead  of  taking  the  bread 
from  the  mouths  of  poor  working  men  and  women, 
had  lightened  their  labor  a  thousandfold.  The  women, 
like  his  own  wife,  who  had  sewed  by  day  and  night, 
were  saved  their  strength  and  vision,  and  the  slavery 
of  the  clothing  factories,  notorious  in  those  days,  was 
inestimably  lightened.  But  it  had  been  a  hard  fight  to 
make  the  world  take  what  it  sorely  needed. 

Howe's  struggle  had  been  so  hard  that  his  health 
was  badly  broken  when  he  did  succeed.  He  had 
several  years  to  enjoy  his  profits  and  honors.  He  died 
October  3, 1867,  at  his  home  in  Brooklyn. 

Many  inventors  have  barely  escaped  with  their  lives 
from  the  fury  of  mobs  who  thought  the  inventor  would 
take  their  living  from  them.  Papin,  and  Hargreaves, 
and  Arkwright  all  learned  what  such  resistance  meant. 
But  as  one  invention  has  succeeded  another  people 
have  grown  wiser,  and  realized  that  each  has  conferred 
a  benefit  rather  than  taken  away  a  right.  Howe  was 
one  of  the  last  to  find  the  people  he  hoped  to  benefit 
aligned  against  him.  The  world  has  moved,  since 
Galileo's  day,  and  the  inventor  is  now  known  as  the 
great  benefactor.  But  Howe's  life  was  a  fight,  and  his 
triumph  that  of  one  of  the  great  martyrs  of  invention. 


XIII 

BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE 

1847- 

NONE  of  the  inventions  that  have  resulted  from  the 
study  of  electricity  have  been  stumbled  upon  in  the 
dark.  Scientists  in  both  England  and  America  had 
realized  the  possibility  of  the  telegraph  before  Morse 
built  his  first  working  outfit  in  his  rooms  on  Washington 
Square.  Edison  took  out  a  patent  covering  wireless 
telegraphy  before  Marconi  gave  his  name  to  the  new 
means  of  communication.  Often  a  man  who  has  been 
following  one  trail  through  this  new  field  has  come 
upon  another,  glanced  down  it,  and  decided  to  go  back 
and  explore  it  more  thoroughly  another  day.  Mean- 
time the  trail  is  run  down  by  a  rival.  The  prize  has 
gone  to  that  persevering  one  who  has  made  that  trail 
his  own,  and  learned  its  secret  while  other  men  were 
only  glancing  at  it.  Alexander  Graham  Bell  was  by  no 
means  the  first  man  to  realize  that  the  sound  of  the 
human  voice  could  be  sent  over  a  wire.  He  did  not 
happen  to  stumble  upon  this  fact.  He  worked  it  out 
bit  by  bit,  from  what  other  men  had  already  learned 
concerning  electricity,  and  his  object  was  to  make  the 
telephone  of  real  use  to  the  world.  It  so  happened 
that  Elisha  Gray  and  Bell  each  filed  a  claim  upon  the 
telephone  at  the  Patent  Office  on  the  same  day, 


216  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

February  14,  1876.  But  it  was  Bell  who  was  able  to 
place  the  first  telephone  at  the  public's  service. 

He  came  of  a  family  that  had  long  been  interested 
in  the  study  of  speech.  His  father,  his  grandfather, 
his  uncle,  and  two  brothers  had  all  taught  elocution  in 
one  form  or  another  at  the  Universities  of  Edinburgh, 
Dublin,  and  London.  His  grandfather  had  worked 
out  a  successful  system  to  correct  stammering,  his 
father,  widely  known  as  a  splendid  elocutionist,  had 
invented  a  sign-language  that  he  called  "Visible 
Speech,"  which  was  of  help  to  those  learning  foreign 
tongues,  and  also  a  system  to  enable  the  deaf  to  read 
spoken  words  by  the  movements  of  the  lips.  Naturally 
enough  the  young  inventor  started  with  a  very  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  the  laws  of  sound. 

Bell  was  born  in  Edinburgh  March  I,  1847,  and 
educated  there  and  in  London.  When  he  was  sixteen 
family  influence  was  able  to  get  him  the  post  of  teacher 
of  elocution  in  certain  schools,  and  he  spent  his  leisure 
hours  studying  the  science  of  sound.  Soon  after  he 
came  of  age  he  met  two  well-known  Englishmen  who 
were  experts  in  his  line  of  study,  Sir  Charles  Wheat- 
stone  and  Alexander  J.  Ellis.  Ellis  had  translated 
Helmholtz's  celebrated  book  on  "The  Sensations  of 
Tone,"  and  was  able  to  show  Bell  in  his  own  laboratory 
how  the  German  scientist  had  succeeded  in  keeping 
tuning-forks  in  vibration  by  the  power  of  electro-mag- 
nets, and  had  blended  the  tones  of  several  tuning-forks 
so  as  to  produce  approximately  the  sound  of  the  hu- 
man voice.  This  idea  was  new  to  Bell,  and  led  him  to 
wonder  whether  it  would  not  be  possible  to  construct 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  217 

what  might  be  called  a  musical  telegraph,  sending  dif- 
ferent notes  over  a  wire  by  electro-magnetism,  using  a 
piano  keyboard  to  give  the  different  notes. 

Sir  Charles  Wheatstone,  the  leading  English  author- 
ity on  the  telegraph,  received  young  Bell  with  the 
greatest  interest,  and  showed  him  a  new  talking-ma- 
chine that  had  been  constructed  by  Baron  de  Kempelin. 
Bell  studied  this  closely,  discussed  it  with  Wheatstone, 
and  decided  that  he  would  devote  himself  to  the  prob- 
lems of  reproducing  sounds  mechanically. 

The  course  of  his  life  was  then  suddenly  altered.  His 
two  brothers  died  in  Edinburgh  of  consumption,  and 
he  was  told  that  he  must  seek  a  change  of  climate.  Ac- 
cordingly his  father  and  mother  sailed  with  him  to  the 
town  of  Brantford  in  Canada.  There  he  at  once  be- 
came interested  in  teaching  his  father's  system  of  "  Visi- 
ble Speech"  to  a  tribe  of  Mohawk  Indians  in  the 
neighborhood. 

He  had  already  had  very  considerable  success  in 
teaching  deaf-mutes  to  talk  by  visible  speech,  or  sign- 
language,  and  this  success  was  repeated  in  Canada. 
Word  of  it  went  to  Boston,  and  as  a  result  the  Board  of 
Education  of  that  city  wrote  to  him,  offering  to  pay 
him  five  hundred  dollars  if  he  would  teach  his  system 
in  a  school  for  deaf-mutes  there.  He  was  glad  to  ac- 
cept, and  in  1871  moved  to  Boston,  which  he  planned 
to  make  his  permanent  residence. 

Success  crowned  his  teaching  almost  immediately. 
Boston  University  offered  him  a  professorship,  and  he 
opened  a  "  School  of  Vocal  Physiology,"  which  paid 
him  well.  Most  of  his  remarkable  skill  in  teaching  the 


21$  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

deaf  and  dumb  to  understand  spoken  words  and  in  a 
manner  to  speak  themselves  was  due  to  his  father's 
system,  which  he  had  carefully  followed,  and  had  in 
some  respects  improved  upon. 

At  this  time  a  resident  of  Salem,  Thomas  Sanders, 
engaged  the  young  teacher  to  train  his  small  deaf-mute 
son,  and  asked  him  to  make  his  home  at  Sanders'  house 
in  Salem.  As  he  could  easily  reach  Boston  from  there 
Bell  consented,  and  in  the  cellar  of  Mr.  Sanders'  house 
he  set  up  a  workshop,  where  for  three  years  he  experi- 
mented with  tuning-forks  and  electric  batteries  along 
the  line  of  his  early  studies  in  London. 

At  nearly  the  same  time  Miss  Mabel  Hubbard  came  to 
him  to  be  taught  his  system  of  speech.  He  became  en- 
gaged to  her,  and  some  years  later  they  were  married. 

His  future  wife's  father  was  a  well-known  Boston 
lawyer,  Gardiner  G.  Hubbard.  It  is  related  that  one 
evening  as  Bell  sat  at  the  piano  in  Mr.  Hubbard's  home 
in  Cambridge,  he  said,  "  Do  you  know  that  if  I  sing 
the  note  G  close  to  the  strings  of  the  piano,  the  G- 
string  will  answer  me?"  "What  of  it?"  asked  Mr. 
Hubbard.  "  Why,  it  means  that  some  day  we  ought  to 
have  a  musical  telegraph,  that  will  send  as  many  mes- 
sages simultaneously  over  one  wire  as  there  are  notes 
on  the  piano." 

Bell  knew  the  field  of  his  work  in  a  general  way,  but 
he  had  not  yet  decided  which  path  to  choose  of  several 
that  looked  as  if  they  might  lead  across  it.  His  far- 
distant  goal  was  to  construct  a  machine  that  would 
carry,  not  the  dots  and  dashes  of  the  telegraph,  but  the 
complex  vibrations  of  the  human  voice.  This  would 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  219 

be  much  more  difficult  to  attain  than  a  musical  tele- 
graph, and  for  some  time  he  wavered  between  the  two 
ideas.  His  work  with  his  deaf  and  dumb  pupils  was  all 
in  the  line  of  making  sound  vibrations  visible  to  the  eye. 
He  knew  that  with  what  was  called  the  phonautograph 
he  could  get  tracings  of  such  sound  vibrations  upon 
blackened  paper  by  means  of  a  pencil  or  marker  at- 
tached to  a  vibrating  cord  or  membrane,  and  further- 
more that  he  could  obtain  tracings  of  certain  vowel 
sound  vibrations  upon  smoked  glass.  He  studied  the 
effect  of  vibrations  upon  the  bones  of  the  ear,  and  this  led 
him  to  experiment  with  vibrating  a  thin  piece  of  iron  be- 
fore an  electro-magnet. 

His  study  of  the  effect  of  vibrations  on  the  human  ear- 
drum showed  Bell  what  path  he  should  follow.  Sound 
waves  striking  the  delicate  ear-drum  could  send  thrills 
through  the  heavier  bones  inside  the  ear.  He  thought 
that  if  he  could  construct  two  iron  discs,  which  should 
be  similar  to  the  ear-drums,  and  connect  them  by  an 
electrified  wire,  he  might  be  able  to  make  the  disc  at  one 
end  vibrate  with  sound  waves,  send  those  vibrations 
through  the  wire  to  the  other  disc,  and  have  that  give 
out  the  vibrations  again  in  the  form  of  sounds.  That 
now  became  his  working  idea,  and  it  was  the  principle 
on  which  the  telephone  was  ultimately  to  be  built. 

But  Bell  had  been  giving  so  much  time  and  atten- 
tion to  this  absorbing  project  that  his  teaching  had  suf- 
fered. His  "  School  of  Vocal  Physiology  "  had  had  to 
be  abandoned,  and  he  found  that  his  only  pupils  were 
Miss  Hubbard  and  small  George  Sanders.  Both  Mr. 
Sanders  and  Mr.  Hubbard,  who  had  been  helping  him 


220  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

with  the  cost  of  his  experiments,  refused  to  do  so  any 
longer  unless  he  would  devote  himself  to  working  out 
his  musical  telegraph,  in  which  both  had  a  great  deal 
of  faith  as  a  successful  business  proposition. 

While  he  was  struggling  with  these  distracting  calls 
of  duty  and  science  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Washing- 
ton to  see  his  patent  attorney.  There  he  determined  to 
call  upon  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  who  was  the  great- 
est American  authority  on  electrical  science,  and  who 
had  experimented  with  the  telegraph  in  the  early  years 
of  the  century.  Bell,  aged  twenty-eight,  explained  his 
new  idea  to  Henry,  then  aged  seventy-eight.  The 
theory  was  new  to  Henry,  but  he  saw  at  once  that  it 
had  tremendous  possibilities.  He  told  Bell  so.  "  But, ' 
said  Bell,  "  I  have  not  the  expert  knowledge  of  elec- 
tricity that  is  needed."  "  You  can  get  it,"  answered 
Henry.  "  You  must,  for  you  are  in  possession  of  the 
germ  of  a  great  invention." 

Those  few  words,  coming  from  such  a  man,  were  of 
the  greatest  possible  encouragement  to  Bell.  He  re- 
turned home,  determined  to  get  the  knowledge  of 
electricity  he  needed,  and  to  carry  on  his  work  with  the 
telephone. 

He  rented  a  room  at  109  Court  Street,  Boston,  for  a 
workshop,  and  took  a  bedroom  in  the  neighborhood. 
He  studied  electricity  night  and  day,  and  he  gave 
equal  time  to  the  musical  telegraph  that  his  friends 
favored  and  to  the  invention  that  now  claimed  his  real 
interest. 

The  man  from  whom  Bell  rented  his  workshop  was 
Charles  Williams,  himself  a  manufacturer  of  electrical 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  221 

supplies.  Bell  had  for  his  assistant  Thomas  A.  Watson, 
who  helped  him  construct  the  two  armatures,  or  vibrat- 
ing discs,  at  the  end  of  an  electrified  wire  that 
stretched  from  the  workshop  to  an  adjoining  room. 
Watson  was  working  with  Bell  on  an  afternoon  in  June, 
1875.  Bell  was  in  the  workshop,  and  Watson  in  the 
next  room.  Bell  was  stooping  down  over  the  instru- 
ment at  his  end  of  the  wire.  Suddenly  he  gave  an 
exclamation.  He  had  heard  a  faint  twang  come  from 
the  disc  in  front  of  him. 

He  dashed  into  the  next  room.  "Snap  that  reed 
again,  Watson,"  he  commanded.  Back  at  his  own  end 
of  the  wire  he  waited.  In  a  minute  he  caught  the  light 
twang  again.  It  was  only  what  he  had  been  expecting 
to  hear  at  any  time  during  the  months  of  his  work,  but 
nevertheless  he  was  amazed  when  he  did  catch  the 
sound.  It  proved  that  a  sound  could  be  carried  over  a 
wire,  and  accurately  reproduced  at  the  farther  end. 
And  that  meant  that  the  vibrations  of  the  human  voice 
could  ultimately  be  sent  in  the  same  way. 

Bell's  enthusiasm  had  already  converted  his  assistant, 
Watson ;  it  now  won  over  Hubbard  and  Sanders. 
They  began  to  believe  that  there  might  be  some- 
thing of  real  value  in  his  strange  scheme,  and  offered 
to  help  him  finance  it.  He  went  on  with  his  studies  in 
electricity,  and  gradually  began  to  learn  how  he  could 
make  it  serve  him  best. 

But  it  was  a  far  cry  from  that  first  faint  sound  to  the 
actual  transmission  of  words.  For  a  long  time  his 
receiving  instruments  would  only  give  out  vague 
rumbling  noises.  In  November,  1875,  his  experiments 


222  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

showed  him  that  the  vibrations  created  in  a  reed  by  the 
human  voice  could  be  transmitted  in  such  a  way  as  to 
reproduce  words  and  sounds.  Then,  in  January,  1876, 
he  showed  a  few  of  the  pupils  at  Monroe's  School  of 
Oratory  in  Boston  an  apparatus  by  which  singing 
could  be  carried  more  or  less  satisfactorily  from  the 
cellar  of  the  building  to  a  room  on  the  fourth  floor. 
But  on  March  10,  1876,  the  new  instrument  actually 
talked.  Watson,  who  was  at  the  basement  end  of  the 
wire,  heard  the  disc  say,  "  Mr.  Watson,  come  here,  I 
want  you."  He  dashed  up  the  three  flights  of  stairs  to 
the  room  in  which  Bell  was.  "  I  can  hear  you  1 "  he 
cried.  "  I  can  hear  the  words  /  " 

"  Had  I  known  more  about  electricity,  and  less  about 
sound,"  Bell  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  I  would  never 
have  invented  the  telephone."  He  had  come  upon  his 
discovery  by  the  right  path,  but  it  was  a  path  that  very 
few  men  could  ever  have  picked  out.  Other  inventors 
had  tried  to  make  a  machine  that  would  carry  the  voice, 
but  they  had  all  worked  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
telegraph.  Bell,  inheriting  unusual  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  speech  and  sound,  came  from  the  other  direc- 
tion. He  started  with  the  laws  of  sound  transmission 
rather  than  with  the  laws  of  the  telegraph.  The  result 
was  that  he  had  created  something  altogether  new, 
basically  different  from  all  the  other  inventions  that 
made  use  of  electricity,  for  which  there  was  as  yet  no 
common  name  even,  and  which  he  described  in  his 
application  for  a  patent, as  "an  improvement  in  teleg- 
raphy." 

Only  two  months  after  the  day  on  which  the  tele- 


THE  FIRST  TELEPHONE 


Reproduced  by  permission 

From  "The  History  of  the  Telephone" 

By  Herbert  N.   Casson 

Published  by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  223 

phone  had  actually  talked  for  the  first  time  the  Centen- 
nial Exposition  opened  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Hubbard 
was  one  of  the  Commissioners,  and  he  obtained  per- 
mission to  have  Bell's  first  telephone  placed  on  a  small 
table  in  the  Department  of  Education.  Bell  himself 
was  too  poor  to  be  able  to  go  to  Philadelphia,  and 
intended  to  stay  in  Boston,  and  try  to  find  new  deaf- 
mute  pupils.  But  when  Miss  Hubbard  left  for  the 
Centennial,  and  begged  him  to  go  with  her,  he  could 
not  resist.  He  stayed  on  the  train,  without  a  ticket, 
without  baggage,  and  reached  Philadelphia  with  the 
Hubbards. 

The  new  instrument  had  been  at  the  Exposition  for 
six  weeks  without  attracting  serious  attention.  But  Mr. 
Hubbard  arranged  that  the  judges  should  examine  it 
for  a  few  minutes  on  the  Sunday  afternoon  following 
Bell's  arrival.  The  afternoon,  however,  was  very  warm, 
and  there  were  a  great  many  exhibits  for  the  judges  to 
inspect.  There  was  the  first  grain-binder,  and  the 
earliest  crude  electric  light,  and  Elisha  Gray's  musical 
telegraph,  and  exhibits  of  printing  telegraphs.  It  was 
seven  o'clock  when  the  judges  reached  Bell's  table,  and 
they  were  tired  and  hungry.  One  of  the  judges  picked 
up  the  receiver,  looked  at  it,  and  put  it  back  on  the 
table.  The  others  laughed  and  joked  as  they  started 
to  go  by.  Then  they  stopped  short.  A  man  had 
come  up  to  the  table,  with  a  crowd  of  attendants  at  his 
heels.  He  said  to  the  young  man  at  the  table,  "  Pro- 
fessor Bell,  I  am  delighted  to  see  you  again."  The 
new  arrival  was  the  Emperor  Dom  Pedro  of  Brazil, 
who  had  once  visited  Bell's  school  for  deaf-mutes  in 


224  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Boston.  The  Emperor  said  he  would  like  to  test  Bell's 
new  machine. 

With  the  judges,  a  group  of  famous  scientific  men, 
and  the  Emperor's  suite  for  audience,  Bell  went  to  the 
transmitter  at  the  other  end  of  the  wire,  while  Dom 
Pedro  put  the  receiver  to  his  ear.  There  was  a 
moment's  pause,  and  then  the  Emperor  threw  back  his 
head,  exclaiming,  "  My  God — it  talks!" 

The  Emperor  put  down  the  receiver.  Joseph  Henry, 
who  had  encouraged  Bell  in  Washington,  picked  it  up. 
He  too  heard  Bell's  own  words  coming  from  the  disc. 
He  too  showed  his  amazement.  "  This  comes  nearer 
to  overthrowing  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of 
energy,"  said  he,  "  than  anything  I  ever  saw."  After 
him  came  Sir  William  Thomson,  later  known  as  Lord 
Kelvin.  He  had  been  the  engineer  of  the  first  Atlantic 
Cable.  He  listened  intently.  "  Yes,"  said  he  at  last, 
"it  does  speak.  It  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  I  have 
seen  in  America !  " 

Until  ten  o'clock  that  night  the  judges  spoke  into 
the  transmitter  and  listened  at  the  receiver  of  Bell's  in- 
strument. Next  morning  it  was  given  a  place  of 
honor,  and  every  one  begged  for  a  chance  to  examine 
it.  It  became  the  most  wonderful  exhibit  of  the  Cen- 
tennial, and  the  judges  gave  Bell  their  Certificate  of 
Award.  Nothing  more  opportune  could  possibly  have 
happened  for  the  inventor. 

But  in  spite  of  this  launching  at  the  hands  of  the 
most  eminent  scientists,  business  men  could  see  little 
future  for  the  new  machine.  It  was  very  ingenious, 
they  admitted,  but  it  could  only  be  a  toy.  And  Bell 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  225 

himself  was  not  sufficiently  well  versed  in  business 
affairs  to  know  how  to  make  the  most  of  his  invention. 
Fortunately  Mr.  Hubbard  was  much  better  acquainted 
with  business  methods.  He  determined  to  promote 
the  telephone,  and  he  did.  He  talked  about  it  to  all 
his  friends  until  they  could  think  of  nothing  else.  He 
began  a  campaign  of  publicity,  with  the  object  of 
making  the  name  of  the  new  instrument  a  household 
word.  He  had  it  written  up  for  the  newspapers,  and 
advertised  public  demonstrations  of  its  powers,  and  ar- 
ranged that  Bell  should  lecture  on  it  in  different  cities. 
Bell  was  a  good  lecturer,  and  his  talks  became  popular. 
Then  news  was  sent  to  the  Boston  Globe  by  tele- 
phone, and  people  began  to  wonder  if  there  were  not 
new  possibilities  in  its  use. 

In  May,  1877,  a  man  named  Emery  called  at  Hub- 
bard's  office,  and  leased  two  telephones  for  twenty 
dollars.  That  encouraged  the  promoters,  and  they 
issued  a  little  circular  describing  the  business.  Then 
another  man,  who  ran  a  burglar-alarm  company,  ob- 
tained permission  to  hang  up  the  telephone  in  a  few 
banks.  They  proved  of  use,  and  the  same  man  started 
a  service  among  the  express  companies.  Before  long 
several  other  small  exchanges  were  opened,  and  by 
August,  1877,  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  778 
telephones  in  use.  Hubbard  was  very  much  encour- 
aged, and  he,  together  with  Bell,  Sanders,  and  Watson 
formed  the  "  Bell  Telephone  Association." 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  was  a 
great  corporation,  controlling  the  telegraph  business 
of  the  country.  Hubbard  hoped  that  it  would  purchase 


226  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

the  Bell  patents,  as  it  had  already  bought  many 
patents  taken  out  on  allied  inventions.  They  offered 
them  to  President  Orton  for  $100,000,  but  he  refused 
to  buy  them,  saying,  "  What  use  could  this  company 
make  of  an  electrical  toy  ?  " 

But  the  Western  Union  had  many  little  subsidiary 
companies,  supplying  customers  with  printing-tele- 
graphs and  dial  telegraphs  and  various  other  modifi- 
cations of  the  usual  telegraph,  and  one  day  one  of 
these  companies  reported  that  some  of  their  customers 
were  preferring  to  use  the  new  telephone.  The  West- 
ern Union  bestirred  itself  at  this  sign  of  competition, 
and  had  shortly  formed  the  "  American  Speaking- 
Telephone  Company,"  with  a  staff  of  inventors  that 
included  Edison.  The  war  was  on  in  earnest,  for  the 
new  company  not  only  claimed  to  have  the  best  instru- 
ment on  the  market,  but  advertised  that  it  had  "the 
only  original  telephone." 

That  war  was  actually  a  good  thing  for  Bell,  and 
Hubbard,  and  Sanders.  With  the  Western  Union 
pushing  this  new  invention,  and  not  only  pushing  it, 
but  fighting  for  its  claim  to  it,  the  public  realized  that 
the  telephone  was  neither  a  toy  nor  a  scientific  oddity, 
but  an  instrument  of  great  commercial  value.  Sanders' 
relatives  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Bell  Company,  and  put 
money  into  its  treasury,  and  soon  Hubbard  was  leasing 
out  telephones  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  a  month. 

But  none  of  these  partners  was  exactly  the  man  to 
organize  and  build  up  such  a  business  as  this  of  the 
telephone  should  be,  and  each  of  them  knew  it.  Then 
Hubbard  discovered  a  young  man  in  Washington  who 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  227 

impressed  him  as  having  remarkable  executive  ability. 
Watson  met  him,  and  his  opinion  coincided  with  that 
of  Hubbard.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that  the 
partners  offered  the  post  of  General  Manager  at  a 
salary  of  thirty-five  hundred  dollars  a  year  to  this  man, 
Theodore  N.  Vail,  and  Vail  accepted  the  offer.  Vail 
himself  knew  little  about  the  telephone,  but  his  cousin, 
Alfred  Vail,  had  been  the  friend  and  assistant  of  Morse 
when  he  was  working  on  his  first  telegraph. 

Hubbard  had  advertised  Bell's  telephone,  Sanders 
had  financed  it,  and  now  Vail  pushed  it  on  the  market. 
He  faced  the  powerful  Western  Union  and  fought 
them.  He  sent  copies  of  Bell's  original  patent  to  each 
of  his  agents,  with  the  message,  "  We  have  the  only 
original  telephone  patents,  we  have  organized  and  in- 
troduced the  business,  and  we  do  not  propose  to  have 
it  taken  from  us  by  any  corporation." 

His  plan  was  to  create  a  national  telephone  system, 
and  so  he  confined  each  of  his  agents  to  one  place, 
and  reserved  all  rights  to  connect  one  city  with  another. 
He  made  short-term  contracts,  and  tried  in  every  way 
to  keep  control  of  the  whole  system  in  the  hands  of  the 
parent  company.  Then  the  Western  Union  came  out 
with  Edison's  new  telephone  transmitter,  which  in- 
creased the  value  of  the  telephone  tenfold,  and  which 
in  fact  made  it  almost  a  new  instrument.  The  Bell 
Company  was  panic-stricken,  for  their  customers  de- 
manded a  telephone  as  good  as  Edison's. 

Those  were  hard  times  for  Vail  and  the  partners  back 
of  him.  The  telephone  war  had  cut  the  price  of  service 
to  a  point  where  neither  company  could  show  a  profit. 


228  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Bell,  now  married,  returned  from  England  with  word 
that  he  had  been  unable  to  establish  the  telephone  busi- 
ness there,  and  that  he  must  have  a  thousand  dollars 
at  once  to  pay  his  most  pressing  debts.  He  was  ill, 
and  he  wrote  from  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital, 
"  Thousands  of  telephones  are  now  in  operation  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  yet  I  have  not  yet  received  one 
cent  from  my  invention.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  largely 
out  of  pocket  by  my  researches,  as  the  mere  value  of 
the  profession  that  I  have  sacrificed  during  my  three 
years'  work  amounts  to  twelve  thousand  dollars." 

At  this  juncture  a  young  Bostonian  named  Francis 
Blake  wrote  to  Vail,  announcing  that  he  had  invented 
a  transmitter  that  was  the  equal  of  Edison's,  and  offer- 
ing to  sell  it  for  stock  in  the  company.  The  purchase 
was  made,  and  the  claim  of  the  inventor  proved  true. 
The  Bell  telephone  was  again  as  good  as  that  of  the 
Western  Union  Company.  A  new  company,  called  the 
National  Bell  Telephone  Company,  was  organized,  with 
a  capital  of  $850,000,  and  Colonel  Forbes  of  Boston 
became  its  first  president. 

There  have  been  few  patent  struggles  to  compare 
with  that  which  was  waged  over  the  telephone. 
McCormick  fought  for  years  to  uphold  his  rights  to  the 
invention  of  the  reaper,  but  he  fought  a  host  of  com- 
petitors, and  the  warfare  was  of  the  guerrilla  order. 
The  Bell  Company  fought  alone  against  the  Western 
Union,  and  it  was  a  struggle  of  giants.  The  Western 
Union  was  certain  that  it  could  find  patents  antedating 
Bell's,  and  it  went  on  that  assumption,  even  after  its 
own  expert  had  reported,  "  I  am  entirely  unable  to 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  229 

discover  any  apparatus  or  method  anticipating  the 
invention  of  Bell  as  a  whole,  and  I  conclude  that  his 
patent  is  valid."  It  claimed  that  Gray  was  the  original 
inventor,  and  instructed  its  lawyers  to  bring  suits 
against  the  Bell  Company  for  infringing  on  Gray's 
patents. 

The  legal  battle  began  in  the  autumn  of  1878,  and 
continued  for  a  year.  Then  George  Gifford,  the  lead- 
ing counsel  for  the  Western  Union,  told  his  clients  that 
their  claim  was  baseless,  and  advised  that  they  come  to 
a  settlement.  The  Western  Union  saw  the  wisdom  of 
this  course,  and  went  to  the  Bell  Company  with  an 
offer  of  compromise.  An  agreement  was  finally 
reached,  to  remain  in  force  for  seventeen  years,  and  the 
terms  were  that  the  Western  Union  should  admit  that 
Bell  was  the  original  inventor,  that  his  patents  were 
valid,  and  should  retire  from  the  telephone  business. 
On  the  other  side,  the  Bell  Company  agreed  to  buy  the 
Western  Union  telephone  system,  to  pay  them  a 
royalty  of  twenty  per  cent,  on  all  their  telephone 
rentals,  and  to  keep  out  of  the  telegraph  business. 

That  ended  the  great  war.  It  converted  a  powerful 
rival  into  an  ally,  it  gave  the  Bell  Company  fifty-six 
thousand  new  telephones  in  fifty-five  cities,  and  it  made 
that  company  the  national  system  of  the  Unjted  States. 
In  1 88 1  there  was  another  reorganization  ;  the  Ameri- 
can Bell  Telephone  Company  was  created,  with  a 
capital  of  six  million  dollars.  The  following  year  there 
was  such  a  telephone  boom  that  the  Bell  Company's 
system  was  doubled,  and  the  gross  earnings  reached 
more  than  a  million  dollars. 


230  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  four  men  who  had  taken  hold  of  Bell's  invention 
in  its  infancy  and  brought  it  to  maturity  were  ready  to 
surrender  its  care  into  the  hands  of  the  able  business 
men  who  headed  the  Bell  Company.  Sanders  sold 
his  stock  in  the  company  for  a  little  less  than  a  million 
dollars,  Watson,  when  he  resigned  his  interest,  found 
himself  sufficiently  rich  to  build  a  ship-building  plant 
near  Boston  and  employ  four  thousand  workmen  to 
build  battle-ships.  Gardiner  G.  Hubbard  retired  from 
active  business  life,  and  transferred  his  remarkable 
energy  to  the  affairs  of  the  National  Geographical 
Society.  Bell  had  presented  his  stock  in  the  company 
to  his  wife  on  their  wedding-day,  and  he  now  took  up 
afresh  the  work  of  his  boyhood  and  youth,  the  teaching 
of  deaf-mutes.  But  he  was  no  longer  unheeded  nor 
unrewarded.  In  1880  the  government  of  France 
awarded  him  the  Volta  prize  of  fifty  thousand  francs 
and  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  With  the 
Volta  prize  he  founded  the  Volta  Laboratory  in  Wash- 
ington for  the  use  of  students.  In  Washington  he  has 
made  his  home,  and  there  scientists  of  all  lands  call  to 
pay  their  respects  to  the  patriarch  of  American 
inventors. 

Shortly  after  the  first  appearance  of  the  telephone  at 
the  Centennial  Exposition  men  were  accustomed  to 
laugh  at  the  new  invention,  and  call  it  a  freak,  a 
scientific  toy.  Its  mechanism  was  so  incomprehensible 
to  most  people  that  they  refused  to  regard  it  seriously. 
A  Boston  mechanic  expressed  the  general  ignorance 
when  he  stoutly  maintained  that  in  his  opinion  there 
must  be  "a  hole  through  the  middle  of  the  wire." 


BELL  AND  THE  TELEPHONE  231 

And  the  telephone  is  still  to  most  people  a  mystery,  far 
more  so  than  the  telegraph  or  the  incandescent  light  or 
the  other  uses  to  which  electricity  has  been  put.  It  is 
one  thing  to  send  a  message  by  the  mechanical  process 
of  dots  and  dashes  made  by  breaking  and  joining  a 
current.  It  is  quite  another  to  reproduce  in  one  place 
the  exact  inflection,  tone,  and  quality  of  a  voice  that  is 
speaking  hundreds  of  miles  away,  across  rivers  and 
mountains.  There  is  real  magic  in  that,  the  wonder 
that  might  be  found  in  a  Genii's  spell  in  the  Arabian 
Nights.  How  can  people  be  blamed  for  laughing  at 
such  pretensions,  and  believing  that  even  if  such  a 
thing  were  true  it  was  more  fit  for  an  exposition  than 
for  public  use  ? 

Yet  this  thing  of  magic  has  outdistanced  every  other 
mode  of  communication.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the 
United  States  as  many  messages  are  sent  by  telephone 
as  the  combined  total  of  telegrams,  letters,  and  railroad 
passengers.  The  telephone  wires  are  eight  times 
greater  than  the  telegraph  wires,  and  their  earnings  six 
times  as  great.  It  is  true  that  the  telephone  is  vastly 
more  used  in  America  than  in  other  parts  of  the  world, 
and  yet  it  is  figured  that  in  the  world  at  large  almost  as 
many  messages  are  now  telephoned  as  are  sent  by  post. 

And  the  mystery  of  the  telephone  grows  no  less  the 
more  one  studies  it.  You  speak  against  a  tiny  disc  of 
sheet-iron,  and  the  disc  trembles.  It  has  millions  and 
millions  of  varieties  of  trembles,  as  many  as  there  are 
sounds  in  the  universe.  A  piece  of  copper  wire, 
connected  with  an  electric  battery,  stretches  from  the 
disc  against  which  you  have  spoken  to  another  disc 


232  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

miles  and  miles  away.  The  tremble  of  your  disc  sends 
an  electric  thrill  along  the  wire  to  that  other  disc  and 
makes  it  tremble  exactly  as  yours  did.  And  that 
trembling  sounds  the  very  note  you  spoke,  the  very 
note  in  millions  of  possible  notes,  and  as  accurately  as 
if  the  sound  wave  had  only  traveled  three  feet  through 
clear  air.  That  is  what  happens  when  you  telephone, 
but  when  you  realize  it  the  mystery  gains  rather  than 
decreases. 

Scores  of  men  claimed  to  have  invented  telephones 
before  Bell  did,  but  none  ever  proved  their  claims. 
Men  who  were  studying  improvements  on  the  telegraph 
had  glimpses  of  the  ultimate  possibility  of  transmitting 
speech  by  wire,  and  Elisha  Gray  filed  a  caveat  on  that 
point  later  on  the  very  day  that  Bell  filed  his  applica- 
tion for  a  patent.  But  Gray's  was  a  caveat,  or  a 
declaration  that  the  applicant  believes  he  can  invent  a 
certain  device,  and  Bell's  was  the  statement  that  he 
had  already  perfected  his  invention.  Bell's  claim  stood 
against  the  world,  and  men  now  recognize  that  the 
telephone  was  born  on  that  afternoon  in  June,  1875, 
when  the  young  teacher  of  deaf-mutes  first  caught  the 
faint  twang  of  a  snapping  reed  sent  across  a  few  yards 
of  wire. 


XIV 

EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT 

'847-      . 

To  some  men  the  material  world  is  always  present- 
ing itself  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  fascinating  puzzles, 
to  be  solved  as  one  might  work  out  a  game  of  chess. 
The  astronomer  is  given  certain  figures,  and  from 
those  he  intends  to  derive  certain  laws ;  the  scientist 
knows  the  properties  of  certain  materials  and  from 
those  he  is  to  reach  some  new  combination  that  will 
produce  a  new  result.  He  is  not  an  inventor  as  much 
as  he  is  a  detective ;  he  picks  up  the  clews  to  certain 
happenings  and  constructs  a  working  theory  to  fit 
them.  In  mechanics  this  theory  that  he  constructs 
usually  takes  the  form  of  a  machine.  And  this  machine 
is  not  so  much  a  new  discovery  as  it  is  the  practical 
working-out  of  certain  carefully-selected  laws  of  nature. 

Perhaps  there  has  never  been  a  man  whose  thoughts 
were  so  continually  asking  the  question  why  as  Thomas 
Alva  Edison.  Certainly  there  has  never  been  one  who 
has  found  the  answer  to  that  question  in  so  many  lines 
of  scientific  study.  He  has  not  merely  happened  on 
his  discoveries.  He  has  not  been  as  much  interested 
in  the  result  as  in  the  reasons  for  it.  He  belongs  to  the 
experimenting  age.  Once  on  a  time  men  took  the 


234  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

facts  of  nature  for  granted.  But  if  they  had  always 
done  so  there  would  have  been  no  telegraph,  no  tele- 
phone, no  electric  light,  no  phonograph.  Each  of  these 
were  achieved  by  working  on  a  definite  problem,  and 
in  no  haphazard  way.  The  inventor  has  become  a 
scientist  and  a  mechanic,  and  no  longer  an  amateur 
discoverer.  Chance  has  much  less  to  do  with  the 
winning  of  new  knowledge  than  it  once  had. 

A  visitor  to  Edison's  laboratory  tells  how  he  found 
him  holding  a  vial  of  some  liquid  to  the  light.  After  a 
long  look  at  it  he  put  the  vial  down  on  the  table,  and 
resting  his  head  in  his  hands,  stared  intently  at  it,  as  if 
he  expected  the  vial  to  make  some  answer.  Then  he 
picked  it  up,  shook  it,  and  held  it  again  to  the  light. 
The  visitor  introduced  himself.  Edison  nodded  toward 
the  bottle.  "  Take  a  look  at  those  filings,"  said  he. 
"  See  how  curiously  they  settle  when  I  shake  the  bottle. 
In  alcohol  they  behave  one  way,  but  in  oil  in  this  way. 
Isn't  that  the  most  curious  thing  you  ever  saw — 
better  than  a  play  at  one  of  your  city  theatres,  eh?" 
Again  he  shook  the  vial.  "  What  I  want  to  know  is 
what  they  mean  by  it ;  and  I'm  going  to  find  out." 
There  is  the  man,  he  wants  to  know  "  what  they  mean 
by  it,"  he  continually  asks  the  question  why,  he  is  the 
great  experimenter  among  great  inventors. 

Edison  has  shown  the  calibre  of  his  mind  in  a  score 
of  different  ways.  He  has  been  showing  it  ever  since 
the  days  when  he  was  a  newsboy  on  the  trains  of  the 
Canadian  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  and  the  Michigan 
Central.  Then  he  fitted  up  a  corner  of  the  baggage- 
car  of  his  train  as  a  miniature  laboratory,  and  filled  it 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      235 

with  the  bottles  and  retorts  that  had  been  discarded  at 
the  railroad  workshops.  Among  his  treasures  was  a 
copy  of  Fresenius's  "  Qualitative  Analysis/'  engaging 
reading  for  a  boy  only  twelve  years  old.  But  he  was 
not  only  a  chemist.  When  he  was  not  working  on  the 
train  he  would  be  hanging  about  machine  shops, 
listening  and  watching  and  considering.  One  day 
the  manager  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press  told  him  he 
might  have  some  three  hundred  pounds  of  old  type 
that  had  been  used  up.  The  newsboy  found  an  old 
hand-press  and  began  to  print  a  paper  himself, 
called  the  Grand  Trunk  Herald,  and  sold  it  to  the  em- 
ployees and  regular  passengers  on  his  line.  Usually 
he  would  set  the  type  before  the  train  started,  and 
print  it  in  the  spare  moments  of  his  trip.  Sometimes 
one  of  the  station-masters  on  the  run,  who  was  also  a 
telegraph  operator,  would  get  a  piece  of  important 
news,  write  it  down,  and  hand  the  paper  to  Edison  as 
the  train  stopped.  Then  the  boy  would  go  to  his  shop 
in  the  caboose,  set  up  the  item,  print  it,  and  sell  it,  beat- 
ing the  daily  newspapers  that  might  be  awaiting  the 
passengers  at  the  end  of  the  ride. 

The  new  invention  of  the  telegraph,  and  the  great  pos- 
sibilities of  its  use,  early  caught  his  attention.  About 
the  time  the  Civil  War  began  the  newsboy  adopted  a 
new  idea  in  his  business.  He  had  always  found  it  dif- 
ficult to  know  how  many  newspapers  to  carry  on  each 
trip.  If  he  had  too  large  a  stock  some  would  be  left 
on  his  hands,  if  he  carried  too  few  he  would  be  sold  out 
early  and  lose  a  good  profit.  He  made  a  friend  of  one 
of  the  compositors  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press,  and  got 


236  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

him  to  show  him  the  proofs  of  the  paper.  That  gave 
him  some  idea  of  the  news  of  the  day,  and  he  could 
judge  how  many  papers  he  would  probably  need.  One 
day  the  proof-slip  told  him  that  there  had  been  a  ter- 
rific battle  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  or  Shiloh,  and  that 
sixty  thousand  men  had  been  killed  and  wounded.  He 
knew  that  this  would  sell  the  paper.  All  he  needed 
was  to  let  people  get  an  inkling  of  what  the  news  was. 

Edison  dashed  to  the  telegraph-operator  and  asked  if 
he  would  wire  a  message  to  each  of  the  large  stations 
on  the  railroad  line  requesting  the  station-masters  to 
chalk  up  a  notice  on  their  train  bulletin-board,  giving 
the  fact  that  there  had  been  a  great  battle,  and  that 
papers  telling  about  it  would  reach  the  station  at  such 
an  hour.  In  return  he  offered  the  operator  newspaper 
service  for  six  months  free.  The  bargain  was  made,  and 
the  boy  hurried  to  the  newspaper  office. 

He  did  not  have  enough  money  to  buy  as  many 
papers  as  he  wanted.  He  asked  the  superintendent  to 
let  him  have  one  thousand  copies  of  the  Press  on 
credit.  The  request  was  instantly  refused.  Thereupon 
he  marched  up  the  stairs  to  the  office  of  the  paper's 
owner,  and  asked  if  he  would  give  him  fifteen  hundred 
copies  on  trust.  The  owner  looked  at  the  boy  for  a 
moment,  and  then  wrote  out  an  order.  "Take  that 
down-stairs,"  said  he,  "  and  you  will  get  what  you 
want."  As  Edison  said  in  telling  the  story  afterward, 
"  Then  I  felt  happier  than  I  have  ever  felt  since." 

He  took  his  fifteen  hundred  copies  to  his  storehouse 
on  the  train.  At  the  station  where  the  first  stop  was 
made  he  usually  sold  two  papers.  That  day  as  they 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      237 

ran  in  to  the  platform  it  looked  as  if  a  riot  had  occurred. 
All  the  town  was  clamoring  for  papers.  He  sold  a 
couple  of  hundred  at  five  cents  each.  Another  crowd 
met  him  at  the  next  stop,  and  he  raised  his  price  to  ten 
cents  a  copy.  The  same  thing  happened  at  each  place 
where  they  stopped.  When  he  reached  Port  Huron  he 
put  what  was  left  of  his  stock  in  a  wagon,  and  drove 
through  the  main  streets.  He  sold  his  papers  at  a 
quarter  of  a  dollar  and  more  apiece.  He  went  by  a 
church,  and  called  out  the  news  of  the  battle.  In  ten 
seconds  the  minister  and  all  his  congregation  were 
clamoring  about  the  wagon,  bidding  against  each  other 
for  copies  of  the  precious  issue.  He  had  made  a  small 
fortune  for  a  boy,  and  felt  that  he  owed  it  largely  to 
his  use  of  the  telegraph.  Quick-witted  he  was,  beyond 
a  doubt,  of  an  inventive  turn,  but  a  shrewd  business 
man  on  top  of  all. 

He  wanted  to  be  a  telegraph-operator.  Electricity 
fascinated  him,  and  he  could  watch  the  machines  and 
listen  to  the  music  of  their  clicking  by  the  hour.  He 
set  up  a  line  of  his  own  in  his  father's  basement  at  Port 
Huron,  making  his  batteries  of  bottles,  old  stovepipe 
wire,  nails  and  zinc  that  he  could  pick  up  for  a  trifle. 
He  studied  the  subject  in  his  shop  in  the  corner  of  the 
baggage-car,  during  the  scant  moments  when  he  was 
neither  printer  nor  newsboy.  Once  a  bottle  of  phos- 
phorus upset  and  started  a  fire.  The  boy  was  thrashed 
and  his  bottles  and  wires  thrown  out.  But  he  was  too 
doggedly  persistent  to  mind  any  mishap.  He  saved  the 
small  son  of  the  station-master  at  Port  Clements  from 
being  run  down  by  a  train,  and  in  return  the  father  of- 


238  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

fered  to  teach  him  telegraphy.     So  little  by  little  he 
learned  his  chosen  work. 

He  obtained  a  position  as  night  operator  at  Port 
Huron.  That  kept  him  busy  at  night,  but  he  refused 
to  sleep  during  the  daytime  as  other  night  operators 
did,  and  used  that  time  to  work  on  his  own  schemes. 
To  catch  some  sleep  he  kept  a  loud  alarm-  clock  at  his  of- 
fice, and  set  it  so  that  he  would  be  wakedwhen  trains  were 
due  and  he  was  needed.  But  sometimes  trains  were  off 
schedule,  and  again  and  again  he  would  oversleep.  At 
last  the  train  despatcher  ordered  Edison  to  signal  him  the 
letter  "  A  "  in  the  Morse  alphabet  every  half  hour.  The 
boy  willingly  agreed.  A  few  nights  later  he  brought  an 
invention  of  his  own  to  the  office,  and  connected  it  by 
wires  with  the  clock  and  the  telegraph.  Then  he 
watched  it  work.  Exactly  on  the  half  hour  a  little  lever 
fell,  sending  an  excellent  copy  of  the  Morse  "  A  "  to 
the  key  of  the  telegraph.  Another  lever  closed  the  cir- 
cuit He  kept  his  eyes  on  this  instrument  of  his 
making  until  he  had  seen  it  act  faultlessly  again  at  the 
next  half  hour.  Then  he  went  to  sleep.  Night  after 
night  the  signal  was  sent  without  a  mistake,  and  the 
despatcher  began  to  regain  some  of  the  confidence  he 
had  lost  in  the  young  operator.  Then  one  night  the  des- 
patcher chanced  to  be  at  the  next  station  to  Edison's, 
and  it  occurred  to  him  to  call  the  latter  up  and  have  a 
chat  with  him.  He  signaled  for  fifteen  minutes,  and 
received  no  answer.  Then  he  jumped  on  a  hand-car 
and  rode  to  Edison's  station.  Looking  through  the 
window  he  saw  the  youth  sound  asleep.  His  eyes  took 
in  the  strange  instrument  upon  the  table.  It  was  near 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      239 

the  half  hour,  and  as  the  man  watched  he  saw  one  lever 
of  the  instrument  throw  open  the  key  and  the  other 
send  the  signal  over  the  wire.  The  operator  was  still 
sleeping  soundly.  The  despatcher  recognized  the 
young  man's  ingenuity,  but  he  also  realized  that  he  had 
been  fooled,  and  so  he  woke  Edison  none  too  gently, 
and  told  him  that  his  services  were  no  longer  in  de- 
mand on  that  road. 

Ingenuity,  mechanical  short-cuts,  new  devices  for 
doing  old  work,  were  what  beset  his  mind.  He  was 
not  interested  in  doing  the  simple  routine  service  of  a 
telegrapher,  he  wanted  to  see  what  improvements  on 
it  he  could  make.  Often  this  keenness  for  new  ideas 
led  him  into  trouble  with  his  employers ;  occasionally 
it  was  of  real  service.  At  one  time  an  ice-jam  had 
broken  the  cable-line  between  Port  Huron,  in  Michigan, 
and  Sarnia,  over  the  Canadian  line.  The  river  there 
was  a  mile  and  a  half  wide.  The  officers  were  wonder- 
ing how  they  could  get  their  messages  across  when 
they  saw  Edison  jump  upon  a  locomotive  standing  in 
the  train-yard.  He  seized  the  valve  that  controlled  the 
whistle.  He  opened  and  closed  it  so  that  the  locomo- 
tive's whistles  resembled  the  dots  and  dashes  of  the 
telegraph  code.  He  called  Sarnia  again  and  again. 
"  Do  you  hear  this  ?  Do  you  get  this  ? "  he  sent  by 
the  whistle.  Four  and  five  times  he  sent  the  message, 
and  finally  the  whistle  of  a  locomotive  across  the  river 
answered  him.  In  that  way  communication  was  again 
established. 

A  little  later,  when  Edison  was  employed  as  operator 
in  the  railroad  office  at  Indianapolis,  he  practiced  re- 


240  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

ceiving  newspaper  reports  in  his  spare  hours  at  night. 
He  and  a  friend  named  Parmley  would  take  the  place 
of  the  regular  man,  who  was  glad  to  have  them  do  it. 
"  I  would  sit  down,"  said  Edison,  "  for  ten  minutes, 
and  '  take '  as  much  as  I  could  from  the  instrument, 
carrying  the  rest  in  my  head.  Then  while  I  wrote  out, 
Parmley  would  serve  his  turn  at  '  taking,'  and  so  on. 
This  worked  well  until  they  put  a  new  man  on  at  the 
Cincinnati  end.  He  was  one  of  the  quickest  despatch- 
ers  in  the  business,  and  we  soon  found  it  was  hopeless 
for  us  to  try  to  keep  up  with  him.  Then  it  was  that  I 
worked  out  my  first  invention,  and  necessity  was  cer- 
tainly the  mother  of  it. 

"  I  got  two  old  Morse  registers  and  arranged  them  in 
such  a  way  that  by  running  a  strip  of  paper  through 
them  the  dots  and  dashes  were  recorded  on  it  by  the 
first  instrument  as  fast  as  they  were  delivered  from  the 
Cincinnati  end,  and  were  transmitted  to  us  through  the 
other  instrument  at  any  desired  rate  of  speed.  They 
would  come  in  on  one  instrument  at  the  rate  of  forty 
words  a  minute,  and  would  be  ground  out  of  our  in- 
strument at  the  rate  of  twenty-five.  Then  weren't  we 
proud !  Our  copy  used  to  be  so  clean  and  beautiful 
that  we  hung  it  up  on  exhibition ;  and  our  manager 
used  to  come  and  gaze  at  it  silently  with  a  puzzled  ex- 
pression. He  could  not  understand  it,  neither  could 
any  of  the  other  operators ;  for  we  used  to  hide  my 
impromptu  automatic  recorder  when  our  toil  was  over. 
But  the  crash  came  when  there  was  a  big  night's 
work — a  presidential  vote,  I  think  it  was — and  copy 
kept  pouring  in  at  the  top  rate  of  speed  until  we  fell  an 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      241 

hour  and  a  half  or  two  hours  behind.  The  newspapers 
sent  in  frantic  complaints,  an  investigation  was  made, 
and  our  little  scheme  was  discovered.  We  couldn't 
use  it  any  more." 

His  fortunes  rose  and  fell,  for,  although  he  was  now 
becoming  a  very  expert  operator,  taking  messages  with 
greater  and  greater  speed,  he  would  continue  to  stray 
into  new  fields  of  experiment.  When  he  started  to 
work  in  the  Western  Union  office  in  Memphis,  which 
was  soon  after  the  end  of  the  Civil  War,  he  found  that 
all  messages  that  were  sent  from  New  Orleans  to  New 
York  had  to  be  received  at  Memphis,  sent  on  from 
there  to  Louisville,  taken  again,  and  so  forwarded  by 
half  a  dozen  relays  to  New  York.  Many  errors  might 
creep  in  by  such  a  system.  To  cure  this  he  devised  an 
automatic  repeater,  which  could  be  attached  to  the  line 
at  Memphis,  and  would  of  its  own  accord  send  the 
message  on.  In  this  way  the  signals  could  go  directly 
from  New  Orleans  to  New  York.  The  device  worked, 
<and  was  highly  praised  in  the  local  newspapers.  But 
it  happened  that  the  manager  of  the  office  had  a  rela- 
tive who  was  just  completing  a  similar  instrument,  and 
Edison  had  forestalled  him.  Consequently  he  found 
himself  discharged.  He  got  a  railroad  pass  as  far  as 
Decatur,  and  walked  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from 
there  to  Nashville.  So  by  alternate  riding  and  walking 
he  finally  reached  Louisville.  A  little  later  he  was 
offered  a  place  in  the  Boston  office. 

He  had  plenty  of  nerve,  and  was  not  at  all  put  out  at 
the  amusement  of  the  other  men  when  he  walked  into 
the  Boston  office,  clad  in  an  old  and  shapeless  linen 


242  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

duster.  "  Here  I  am,"  he  announced  to  the  superin- 
tendent. "And  who  are  you?"  he  was  asked. 
"  Tom  Edison.  I  was  told  to  report  here." 

The  superintendent  sent  him  to  the  operating-room. 
Shortly  after  a  New  York  telegrapher,  famed  for  his 
speed,  called  up.  Every  one  else  was  busy,  and  Edison 
was  told  to  take  his  message.  He  sat  down,  and  for 
four  and  a  half  hours  wrote  the  messages,  numbering 
the  pages  and  throwing  them  on  the  floor  for  the  office 
boy  to  gather  up.  As  time  went  on  the  messages 
came  with  such  lightning  speed  that  the  whole  force 
gathered  about  to  see  the  new  man  work.  They  had 
never  seen  such  quickness.  At  the  end  of  the  last 
message  came  the  words,  "  Who  the  devil  are  you  ?  " 
"Tom  Edison,"  the  operator  ticked  back.  "  You  are 
the  first  man  in  the  country,"  wired  the  man  in  New 
York,  "that  could  ever  take  me  at  my  fastest,  and 
the  only  one  who  could  ever  sit  at  the  other  end  of 
my  wire  for  more  than  two  hours  and  a  half.  I'm 
proud  to  know  you." 

This  story  may  be  legendary,  but  it  is  known  to  be 
a  fact  that  Edison  was  at  this  time  the  fastest  operator 
in  the  employ  of  the  Western  Union,  and  that  he 
could  take  the  messages  sent  him  with  a  careless  ease 
which  amounted  almost  to  indifference.  He  had 
also  cultivated  an  unusually  clear  handwriting,  which 
was  of  great  help  in  writing  out  the  messages. 

As  soon  as  he  was  settled  at  the  Boston  office  he 
opened  a  small  workshop,  where  he  might  try  to  com- 
plete some  of  the  many  devices  he  had  in  mind.  He 
took  out  his  first  patent  in  1868,  when  he  was  twenty- 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      243 

one  years  old,  and  it  was  obtained  for  what  he  called 
an  electrical  vote  recorder.  This  was  intended  for  use 
in  Congress  and  the  State  Legislatures,  and  to  take 
the  place  of  the  slow  process  of  calling  the  roll  on  any 
vote.  It  was  worked  somewhat  on  the  plan  of  the 
hotel  indicator.  The  voter,  sitting  at  his  desk,  would 
press  one  button  if  he  wanted  to  vote  "aye,"  and 
another  if  he  wanted  to  vote  "  no."  His  vote  was 
then  recorded  on  a  dial  by  the  Speaker's  desk,  and  as 
soon  as  each  member  had  pressed  one  or  the  other 
button  the  total  votes  on  each  side  could  be  known. 
The  machine  worked  perfectly,  and  Edison  took  it  to 
Washington  in  high  hopes  of  having  it  adopted  by 
Congress.  The  chairman  to  whom  he  was  referred 
examined  it  carefully.  Then  he  said,  "  Young  man,  it 
works  all  right  and  couldn't  be  better.  With  an  in- 
strument like  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  monkey  with 
the  vote  if  you  wanted  to.  But  it  won't  do.  In  fact, 
it's  the  last  thing  on  earth  that  we  want  here.  Fili- 
bustering and  delay  in  the  counting  of  the  votes  are 
often  the  only  means  we  have  of  defeating  bad  legis- 
lation. So,  though  I  admire  your  genius  and  the 
spirit  which  prompted  you  to  invent  so  excellent  a  ma- 
chine, we  shan't  require  it  here.  Take  the  thing  away." 
"  Of  course  I  was  very  sorry,"  said  Edison,  in  speak- 
ing of  this  interview  later,  "  for  I  had  banked  on  that 
machine  bringing  me  in  money.  But  it  was  a  lesson 
to  me.  There  and  then  I  made  a  vow  that  I  would 
never  invent  anything  which  was  not  wanted,  or  which 
was  not  necessary  to  the  community  at  large.  And  so 
far  I  believe  I  have  kept  that  vow." 


244  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

It  was  very  evident  there  was  a  keen-witted  man  at 
work  in  the  Boston  office.  The  operators  there  had 
been  much  annoyed  by  an  army  of  cockroaches  that 
used  to  march  across  the  table  where  they  put  their 
lunches  and  make  a  raid  on  the  sandwiches  and 
pies.  One  day  Edison  appeared  with  some  tin-foil 
and  four  or  five  yards  of  fine  wire.  He  unrolled  the 
tin-foil,  and,  cutting  two  narrow  strips  from  the  long 
sheet,  he  stretched  them  around  the  table,  keeping 
them  near  together,  but  not  touching,  and  fastening 
them  with  small  tacks.  Then  he  connected  the 
ribbons  of  foil  with  two  batteries. 

The  leaders  of  the  cockroach  army  arrived.  The 
advance  guard  got  his  fore-creepers  over  the  first 
ribbon  safely,  but  as  soon  as  they  touched  the  parallel 
ribbon  over  he  fell.  In  a  very  short  time  the  invading 
army  had  met  its  Waterloo,  and  the  lunches  were  safe 
from  any  further  attack. 

At  another  time  the  tin  dipper  that  hung  by  the  tank 
of  drinking-water  temporarily  disappeared.  When  it 
was  returned  Edison  put  up  a  sign,  reading,  "  Please 
return  this  dipper."  He  also  connected  the  nail  on 
which  the  dipper  hung  with  a  wire  attached  to  an 
electric  battery.  After  that  the  dipper  stayed  in  its 
place  under  penalty  of  a  wrenched  arm  for  moving  it 
without  first  disconnecting  the  battery. 

Edison  had  now  determined  to  become  an  inventor, 
and  as  soon  as  he  was  able  gave  up  his  position  in  the 
Boston  telegraph  office,  where  his  routine  work  took 
too  much  of  his  time,  and  went  to  New  York  to  look 
for  other  opportunities.  It  happened  that  one  day 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      245 

soon  after  his  arrival  he  was  walking  through  Wall 
Street  and  was  attracted  to  the  office  of  the  Law  Gold 
Indicator.  The  indicators  or  stock-tickers  of  this  com- 
pany were  a  new  device,  and  were  distributed  through 
most  of  the  large  brokerage  houses  of  the  city.  On 
the  morning  when  Edison  casually  looked  in,  the  ma- 
chines had  stopped  work,  no  one  could  find  out  what 
was  the  matter,  and  the  brokers  were  much  disturbed. 
Edison  watched  Mr.  Law  and  his  workmen  searching 
for  the  trouble.  Then  he  said  that  he  thought  he  could 
fix  the  machines.  Mr.  Law  told  him  to  try.  He  re- 
moved a  loose  contact  spring  that  had  fallen  between 
the  wheels,  and  immediately  the  tickers  began  to  work 
again.  The  other  workmen  looked  foolish,  and  Mr. 
Law  asked  the  newcomer  to  step  into  his  private 
office.  At  the  end  of  the  interview  the  owner  had 
offered  Edison  the  position  of  manager  at  a  salary  of 
three  hundred  dollars  a  month,  and  Edison  had  ac- 
cepted. 

He  determined  to  improve  this  stock-indicator,  and 
set  to  work  at  once.  Soon  he  had  evolved  a  number 
of  important  additions.  The  president  of  the  com- 
pany sent  for  him  and  asked  how  much  he  would  take 
for  these  improvements.  The  inventor  said  that  he 
would  leave  that  to  the  president.  Forty  thousand 
dollars  was  named  and  accepted.  Edison  opened  a 
bank  account,  and  gave  more  time  to  working  in  his 
own  laboratory.  He  had  got  well  started  up  the  rungs 
of  the  ladder  he  planned  to  climb. 

His  work  lay  along  the  lines  of  the  telegraph,  and 
he  was  anxious  to  win  the  support  of  the  Western 


246  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Union  for  his  new  ideas.  His  chance  came  when 
there  was  a  breakdown  of  the  lines  between  New 
York  and  Albany.  He  went  to  the  Western  Union 
president,  who  had  already  heard  of  him,  and  said, 
"  If  I  locate  this  trouble  within  two  or  three  hours,  will 
you  take  up  my  inventions  and  give  them  honest  con- 
sideration ? "  The  president  answered,  "  I'll  consider 
your  inventions  if  you  get  us  out  of  this  fix  within 
two  days."  Edison  rushed  forthwith  to  the  main 
office.  There  he  called  up  Pittsburg  and  asked  for 
their  best  operator.  When  he  had  him  he  told  him  to 
call  up  the  best  man  at  Albany,  and  get  him  to  tele- 
graph down  the  line  to  New  York  as  far  as  he  could, 
and  report  back  to  him.  Inside  of  an  hour  he  received 
the  message,  "I  can  telegraph  all  right  down  to 
within  two  miles  of  Poughkeepsie,  and  there  is  trouble 
with  the  wire  there."  Edison  went  back  to  the  presi- 
dent and  told  him  that  if  he  would  send  a  repair  train 
to  Poughkeepsie  they  would  find  a  break  two  miles  the 
other  side  of  the  city  and  could  have  it  repaired  that 
afternoon.  They  followed  his  directions,  and  com- 
munication was  restored  before  night.  After  that  the 
Western  Union  officials  gave  the  most  careful  consid- 
eration to  every  new  invention  that  Edison  brought 
them. 

As  soon  as  he  had  money  in  bank  Edison  carried 
out  a  plan  he  had  long  had  in  mind.  He  gave  up  his 
workshop  in  New  York  and  opened  a  factory  and  ex- 
perimenting shop  in  Newark,  New  Jersey,  where  he 
would  have  plenty  of  room  for  himself  and  his  assistants. 
He  began  by  manufacturing  his  improved  "  stock- 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      247 

tickers,"  and  he  met  with  very  considerable  success. 
But  he  felt  that  manufacturing  was  not  his  forte.  He 
said  of  this  venture  later,  "  I  was  a  poor  manufacturer, 
because  I  could  not  let  well  enough  alone.  My  first 
impulse  upon  taking  any  apparatus  into  my  hand,  from 
an  egg-beater  to  an  electric  motor,  is  to  seek  a  way  of 
improving  it.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  I  have  finished  a 
machine  I  am  anxious  to  take  it  apart  again  in  order 
to  make  an  experiment.  That  is  a  costly  mania  for  a 
manufacturer." 

In  his  Newark  shop  Edison  now  turned  his  attention 
to  improvements  on  the  telegraph.  His  first  important 
invention  was  the  duplex,  by  which  two  messages 
could  be  sent  over  the  same  wire  in  opposite  directions 
at  the  same  time  without  any  confusion  or  obstruction 
to  each  other.  This  doubled  the  capacity  of  the  single 
wire.  Later  he  decided  to  carry  this  system  farther, 
and  perfected  the  quadruplex  device.  By  this  two 
messages  could  be  sent  simultaneously  in  each  direction, 
and  two  sending  and  two  receiving  operators  were 
employed  at  each  end  of  a  single  wire.  The  principle 
involved  was  that  of  working  with  two  electric  currents 
that  differ  from  each  other  in  strength  or  nature,  and 
which  only  affect  receiving  instruments  specially 
adapted  to  take  such  currents,  and  no  others.  This 
invention  changed  a  hundred  thousand  miles  of  wire 
into  four  hundred  thousand,  and  saved  the  Western 
Union  untold  millions  of  dollars  which  would  otherwise 
have  had  to  be  expended  for  new  wires  and  repairs  to 
the  old  ones. 

Along  somewhat  similar  lines  Edison  perfected  an 


248    '  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

automatic  telegraph,  an  harmonic  multiplex  telegraph, 
and  an  autographic  telegraph.  The  harmonic  multi- 
plex used  tuning-forks  to  separate  the  several  different 
messages  sent  at  the  same  time,  and  the  autographic 
telegraph  allowed  of  the  transmission  of  an  exact  repro- 
duction of  a  message  written  by  the  sender  in  one 
place  and  received  in  another.  And  in  addition  to  all 
these  leading  inventions  he  was  continually  improving 
on  the  main  system,  and  his  improvements  were  rapidly 
bought  and  taken  over  by  the  Western  Union  Com- 
pany. 

In  almost  as  many  diverse  ways  Edison  improved 
upon  the  telephone.  He  had  left  his  factory  in  Newark 
in  charge  of  a  capable  superintendent,  and  moved  his 
own  laboratories  to  Menlo  Park,  a  quiet  place  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Newark.  His  striking  dis- 
coveries soon  earned  for  him  the  nickname  of  "  The 
Wizard  of  Menlo  Park."  Here  he  experimented  with 
the  new  apparatus  known  as  the  telephone.  He  said 
of  his  own  connection  with  it,  "  When  I  struck  the 
telephone  business  the  Bell  people  had  no  transmitter, 
but  were  talking  into  the  magneto  receiver.  You 
never  heard  such  a  noise  and  buzzing  as  there  was  in 
that  old  machine  !  I  went  to  work  and  monkeyed 
around,  and  finally  struck  the  notion  of  the  lampblack 
button.  The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
thought  this  was  a  first-rate  scheme,  and  bought  the 
thing  out,  but  afterward  they  consolidated,  and  I  quit 
the  telephone  business."  As  a  matter  of  fact  Edison 
has  done  a  great  deal  of  other  work  besides  inventing 
his  carbon  transmitter  in  the  telephone  field,  and  the 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      249 

Patent  Office  is  well  stocked  with  applications  he  has 
sent  them  for  receivers  and  transmitters  of  different 
designs. 

Edison  has  himself  told  of  the  main  incidents  in 
his  perfection  of  the  electric  light.  In  the  Electrical 
Review  he  said,  "In  1878  I  went  down  to  see  Pro- 
fessor Barker,  at  Philadelphia,  and  he  showed  me  an 
arc  lamp — the  first  I  had  seen.  Then  a  little  later  I 
saw  another — I  think  it  was  one  of  Brush's  make — and 
the  whole  outfit,  engine,  dynamo,  and  one  or  two  lamps, 
was  traveling  around  the  country  with  a  circus.  At 
that  time  Wallace  and  Moses  G.  Farmer  had  succeeded 
in  getting  ten  or  fifteen  lamps  to  burn  together  in  a 
series,  which  was  considered  a  very  wonderful  thing. 
It  happened  that  at  the  time  I  was  more  or  less  at 
leisure,  because  I  had  just  finished  working  on  the 
carbon-button  telephone,  and  this  electric-light  idea 
took  possession  of  me.  It  was  easy  to  see  what  the 
thing  needed :  it  wanted  to  be  subdivided.  The  light 
was  too  bright  and  too  big.  What  we  wished  for  was 
little  lights,  and  a  distribution  of  them  to  people's 
houses  in  a  manner  similar  to  gas.  Grovernor  P. 
Lowry  thought  that  perhaps  I  could  succeed  in  solving 
the  problem,  and  he  raised  a  little  money  and  formed 
the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company.  The  way  we 
worked  was  that  I  got  a  certain  sum  of  money  a  week 
and  employed  a  certain  number  of  men,  and  we  went 
ahead  to  see  what  we  could  do. 

"  We  soon  saw  that  the  subdivision  never  could  be 
accomplished  unless  each  light  was  independent  of 
every  other.  Now  it  was  plain  enough  that  they  could 


250  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

not  burn  in  series.  Hence  they  must  burn  in  multiple 
arc.  It  was  with  this  conviction  that  I  started.  I  was 
fired  with  the  idea  of  the  incandescent  lamp  as  opposed 
to  the  arc  lamp,  so  I  went  to  work  and  got  some  very 
fine  platinum  wire  drawn.  Experiment  with  this, 
however,  resulted  in  failure,  and  then  we  tried  mixing 
in  with  the  platinum  about  ten  per  cent,  of  iridium,  but 
we  could  not  force  that  high  enough  without  melting 
it.  After  that  came  a  lot  of  experimenting — covering 
the  wire  with  oxide  of  cerium  and  a  number  of  other 
things. 

"Then  I  got  a  great  idea.  I  took  a  cylinder  of 
zirconia  and  wound  about  a  hundred  feet  of  the  fine 
platinum  wire  on  it  coated  with  magnesia  from  the 
syrupy  acetate.  What  I  was  after  was  getting  a  high- 
resistance  lamp,  and  I  made  one  that  way  that  worked 
up  to  forty  ohms.  But  the  oxide  developed  the  phenom- 
ena now  familiar  to  electricians,  and  the  lamp  short- 
circuited  itself.  After  that  we  went  fishing  around  and 
trying  all  sorts  of  shapes  and  things  to  make  a  filament 
that  would  stand.  We  tried  silicon  and  boron,  and  a 
lot  of  things  that  I  have  forgotten  now.  The  funny 
part  of  it  was  that  I  never  thought  in  those  days  that  a 
carbon  filament  would  answer,  because  a  fine  hair  of 
carbon  was  so  sensitive  to  oxidation.  Finally,  I  thought 
I  would  try  it  because  we  had  got  very  high  vacua  and 
good  conditions  for  it. 

"  Well,  we  sent  out  and  bought  some  cotton  thread, 
carbonized  it,  and  made  the  first  filament.  We  had  al- 
ready managed  to  get  pretty  high  vacua,  and  we 
thought,  maybe,  the  filament  would  be  stable.  We 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      251 

built  the  lamp  and  turned  on  the  current.  It  lit  up,  and 
in  the  first  few  breathless  minutes  we  measured  its  re- 
sistance quickly  and  found  it  was  275  ohms — all  we 
wanted.  Then  we  sat  down  and  looked  at  that  lamp. 
We  wanted  to  see  how  long  it  would  burn.  The  prob- 
lem was  solved — if  the  filament  would  last.  The  day 
was — let  me  see — October  21,  1879.  We  sat  and 
looked,  and  the  lamp  continued  to  burn,  and  the  longer 
it  burned  the  more  fascinated  we  were.  None  of  us 
could  go  to  bed,  and  there  was  no  sleep  for  any  of  us 
for  forty  hours.  We  sat  and  just  watched  it  with  anx- 
iety growing  into  elation.  It  lasted  about  forty-five 
hours,  and  then  I  said,  '  If  it  will  burn  that  number  of 
hours  now,  I  know  I  can  make  it  burn  a  hundred.' 
We  saw  that  carbon  was  what  we  wanted,  and  the  next 
question  was  what  kind  of  carbon.  I  began  to  try  vari- 
ous things,  and  finally  I  carbonized  a  strip  of  bamboo 
from  a  Japanese  fan,  and  saw  that  I  was  on  the  right 
track.  But  we  had  a  rare  hunt  finding  the  real  thing. 
I  sent  a  schoolmaster  to  Sumatra  and  another  fellow  up 
the  Amazon,  while  William  H.  Moore,  one  of  my  asso- 
ciates, went  to  Japan  and  got  what  we  wanted  there. 
We  made  a  contract  with  an  old  Jap  to  supply  us  with 
the  proper  fibre,  and  that  man  went  to  work  and  culti- 
vated and  cross-fertilized  bamboo  until  he  got  exactly 
the  quality  we  required." 

This  is  the  inventor's  own  statement,  but  it  gives  a 
very  meagre  notion  of  the  many  months'  experimenting 
in  his  workshop  while  he  hunted  for  a  suitable  filament 
for  his  electric  light. 

As  he  said,  after  he  had  first  seen  the  Brush  light, 


252  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

and  studied  it,  he  decided  that  the  main  problem  was 
one  of  distribution,  and  thereupon  considered  whether 
he  should  use  the  incandescent  or  the  voltaic  arc  in  the 
system  he  was  planning.  At  last  he  decided  in  favor 
of  the  incandescent  light. 

Then  began  the  long  months  of  testing  platinum 
wire.  He  wanted  to  find  some  way  of  preventing  this 
hardest  of  all  metals  from  melting  when  the  full  force 
of  the  electric  current  was  turned  into  it.  He  worked 
out  several  devices  to  keep  the  platinum  from  fusing,  an 
automatic  lever  to  regulate  the  electric  current  when 
the  platinum  was  near  the  melting-point,  and  a  dia- 
phragm with  the  same  object ;  but  all  of  them  had  to 
be  discarded.  Although  he  was  still  searching  for  the 
right  clue  he  seems  to  have  had  no  doubt  of  his  final 
success.  He  said  at  this  time,  "  There  is  no  difficulty 
about  dividing  up  the  current  and  using  small  quanti- 
ties at  different  points.  The  trouble  is  in  finding  a 
candle  that  will  give  a  pleasant  light,  not  too  intense, 
which  can  be  turned  off  and  on  as  easily  as  gas.  Such 
a  candle  cannot  be  made  from  carbon  points,  which 
waste  away,  and  must  be  regulated  constantly  while  they 
do  last.  Some  composition  must  be  discovered  which 
will  be  luminous  when  charged  with  electricity  and  that 
will  not  wear  away.  Platinum  wire  gives  a  good  light 
when  a  certain  quantity  of  electricity  is  passed  through 
it.  If  the  current  is  made  too  strong,  however,  the  wire 
will  melt.  I  want  to  get  something  better." 

It  was  generally  known  that  Edison  was  working 
along  this  line.  An  English  paper,  commenting  on 
the  matter,  said,  "  The  weak  point  of  the  lamp  is  this, 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      253 

that  in  order  to  be  luminous,  platinum  must  be 
heated  almost  to  the  point  of  melting.  With  a  slight 
increase  in  the  current,  the  lamp  melts  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  and  in  practice  the  regulator  is  found  to 
short-circuit  the  current  too  late  to  prevent  the  damage. 
It  is  this  difficulty  which  must  be  overcome.  Can  it  be 
done?" 

After  long  study  Edison  concluded  that  pure  plat- 
inum was  not  suited  to  successful  electric  lighting. 
Then  he  incorporated  with  it  another  material  of  a 
non-conducting  nature,  with  the  result  that  when  the 
electric  current  was  turned  on  one  material  became  in- 
candescent and  the  other  luminous.  This  gave  a  clear, 
but  not  a  permanent,  light.  He  tried  many  different 
combinations,  and  experimented  month  after  month, 
but  none  of  his  trials  produced  the  result  he  wanted, 
and  at  last  he  concluded  that  he  was  on  the  wrong 
track,  and  that  neither  platinum  nor  any  other  metal 
would  give  the  right  light. 

There  is  something  very  dramatic  about  his  real  dis- 
covery. He  was  sitting  in  his  laboratory  one  evening, 
when  his  right  hand  happened  to  touch  a  small  pile  of 
lampblack  and  tar  that  his  assistants  had  been  using  in 
working  on  a  telephone  transmitter.  He  picked  up  a 
little  of  it,  and  began  to  roll  it  between  his  finger  and 
thumb.  He  was  thinking  of  other  things,  and  he  rolled 
the  mixture  absent-mindedly  for  some  time,  until  he  had 
formed  a  thin  thread  that  looked  something  like  a  piece 
of  wire.  Glancing  at  it,  he  fell  to  wondering  how  it 
would  serve  as  a  filament  for  his  light.  It  was  carbon, 
and  might  be  able  to  stand  a  stronger  current  than  plat- 


254  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

inum.  He  rolled  some  more  of  the  mixture,  and  de- 
cided to  try  it. 

His  experiments  had  already  resulted  in  the  produc- 
tion of  an  almost  absolute  vacuum,  only  one-millionth 
part  of  an  atmosphere  being  left  in  the  tube.  Such  a 
vacuum  had  never  been  obtained  before.  With  his  as- 
sistant, Charles  Bachelor,  he  put  a  thread  of  the  lamp- 
black and  tar  in  a  bulb,  exhausted  the  air,  and  turned 
on  the  current.  There  was  an  intense  glow  of  light ; 
but  it  did  not  last,  the  carbon  soon  burned  out.  There- 
fore he  started  to  study  the  reason  why  the  carbon  had 
failed  to  withstand  the  electric  current.  His  conclu- 
sion was  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  the  air  out  of  the 
lampblack.  Besides  that  the  thread  became  so  brittle 
that  the  slightest  shock  to  the  lamp  broke  it.  But  he 
felt  certain  now  that  a  carbon  filament,  made  of  some- 
thing other  than  tar  and  lampblack,  was  what  he  wanted. 

He  next  sent  a  boy  to  buy  a  reel  of  cotton,  and  told 
his  assistants  he  was  going  to  see  what  a  carbonized 
thread  would  do.  They  looked  doubtful,  but  began 
the  experiment.  A  short  piece  of  the  thread  was  bent 
in  the  form  of  a  hairpin,  laid  in  a  nickel  mould  and 
securely  clamped,  and  then  put  in  a  muffle  furnace, 
where  it  was  kept  for  five  hours.  Then  it  was  taken 
out  and  allowed  to  cool.  The  mould  was  opened  and 
the  carbonized  thread  removed.  It  instantly  broke. 
Another  thread  was  put  through  the  same  process.  As 
soon  as  it  was  taken  from  the  mould  it  broke.  Then  a 
battle  began  that  lasted  for  two  days  and  two  nights, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  get  a  carbonized  thread  that 
would  not  break.  Edison  wanted  that  thread  because 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      255 

it  contained  no  air,  and  might  stand  a  greater  current 
than  the  lampblack.  Finally  they  took  from  the  mould 
an  unbroken  thread,  but  as  they  tried  to  fasten  it  to  the 
conducting  wire  it  broke  into  pieces.  Only  on  the 
night  of  the  third  day  of  their  work,  in  all  which  time 
they  had  taken  no  rest,  did  they  get  a  thread  safely 
into  the  lamp,  exhaust  the  air,  and  turn  on  the  current. 
A  clear,  soft  light  resulted,  and  they  knew  that  they  had 
solved  the  problem  of  the  incandescent  light. 

Edison  and  Bachelor  watched  that  light  for  hours. 
They  had  turned  on  a  small  current  at  the  start,  to  test 
the  strength  of  the  filament,  but  as  it  stood  it,  they 
turned  on  a  greater  and  greater  current  until  the  thread 
was  bearing  a  heat  that  would  have  instantly  melted 
the  platinum  wire.  The  cotton  thread  glowed  for  forty- 
five  hours,  and  then  suddenly  went  out.  The  two 
watchers  ended  their  long  vigil,  exhausted,  but  very 
happy.  They  knew  that  they  had  found  the  light  that 
was  to  be  the  main  illumination  for  the  world. 

But  Edison  realized  that  he  had  not  yet  found  the 
ideal  filament.  The  cotton  thread  had  only  lasted 
forty-five  hours,  and  he  wanted  one  that  would  burn  for 
a  hundred  hours  or  longer.  He  wanted  a  more  homo- 
geneous material  than  thread,  and  he  began  to  try  car- 
bonizing everything  he  could  lay  his  hands  on,  straw, 
paper,  cardboard,  splinters  of  wood.  He  found  that 
the  cardboard  stood  the  current  better  than  the  cotton 
thread,  but  even  that  did  not  burn  long  enough.  Then 
he  happened  upon  a  bamboo  fan,  tore  off  the  rim,  and 
tried  that.  It  made  a  filament  that  gave  better  results 
than  any  of  the  others. 


256  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Now  he  began  his  exhaustive  study  of  bamboo.  He 
learned  that  there  were  more  than  twelve  hundred 
known  varieties  of  bamboo.  He  wanted  to  find  the 
most  homogeneous  variety.  He  sent  out  a  number  of 
men  to  hunt  this  bamboo,  and  it  is  said  that  the  search 
cost  nearly  $100,000.  Six  thousand  specimens  of  bam- 
boo were  carbonized,  and  he  found  three  kinds  of  bam- 
boo and  one  of  cane  that  gave  almost  the  result  he 
wanted.  All  of  these  grew  in  a  region  near  the 
Amazon,  and  were  hard  to  get  on  account  of  malarial 
conditions.  But  at  last  he  discovered  the  bamboo 
species  that  suited  him,  and  he  was  ready  to  give  his 
new  light  to  the  world. 

The  world  was  waiting  for  it.  Scientists  and  the 
press  reported  his  invention  everywhere.  He  hung  a 
row  of  lamps  from  the  trees  at  Menlo  Park,  and  the 
thousands  who  came  to  see  them  wondered  when  they 
found  they  could  burn  day  and  night  for  longer  than  a 
week.  The  lamps  were  small  and  finely  made,  they 
could  be  lighted  or  extinguished  by  simply  pressing  a 
button,  and  the  cost  of  making  them  was  slight.  The 
last  doubters  surrendered,  and  admitted  that  Edison 
had  given  the  world  a  new  light,  and  one  which  was 
not  simply  a  scientific  marvel,  but  was  eminently  prac- 
tical and  useful. 

But  Edison  is  never  satisfied  with  what  he  has  done 
in  any  line ;  he  must  try  to  increase  the  service  each 
invention  gives.  Therefore  he  now  conceived  the  idea 
of  having  a  central  station  from  which  every  one  might 
obtain  electric  light  as  they  had  formerly  obtained  gas. 
There  were  gigantic  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  an 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      257 

undertaking.  Hardly  any  one  outside  of  Edison's 
own  laboratory  knew  anything  about  electric  light- 
ing, and  there  were  only  a  few  of  them  who  could  be 
trusted  to  put  a  carbon  filament  in  an  exhausted  globe. 

He  went  about  this  new  development  in  the  most 
methodical  way.  He  got  an  insurance  map  of  New 
York  City,  and  studied  the  business  section  from  Wall 
to  Canal  Streets  and  from  Broadway  over  to  the  East 
River.  He  knew  where  every  elevator  shaft  and  boiler 
and  fire-wall  was,  and  also  how  much  gas  each  resident 
used  and  what  he  paid  for  it.  This  last  he  learned  by 
hiring  men  to  walk  through  the  district  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  and  note  how  many  gas  lights  were 
burning,  then  to  make  the  rounds  again  at  three,  and 
again  at  four,  and  so  on  into  the  hours  of  the  next 
morning. 

With  the  field  carefully  examined  he  formed  the  New 
York  Edison  Illuminating  Company,  and  had  his 
assistants  take  charge  of  factories  for  making  lamps, 
dynamos,  sockets,  and  the  other  parts  necessary  for  his 
lights.  It  was  very  difficult  to  get  the  land  he  wanted 
for  his  central  station,  but  he  finally  bought  two  old 
buildings  on  Pearl  Street  for  $150,000.  He  had  little 
room  space  and  he  wanted  to  get  a  big  output  of  elec- 
tricity. So  he  decided  to  get  a  high-speed  engine. 
They  were  practically  unknown  then,  and  when  he 
went  to  an  engine  builder  and  said  that  he  wanted  a 
150  horse-power  engine  that  would  run  700  revolutions 
per  minute  he  was  told  it  was  impossible.  But  he 
found  a  man  to  build  one  for  him,  and  set  it  up  in  the 
shop  at  Menlo  Park.  The  shop  was  built  on  a  shale 


258  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

hill,  and  when  the  engine  was  started  the  whole  hill 
shook  with  the  high  speed  revolutions.  After  some 
experimenting  and  changing  they  got  the  power  that 
Edison  wanted,  and  he  ordered  six  more  engines  like 
the  first. 

In  the  meantime  workmen  had  been  busy  digging 
ditches  and  laying  mains  through  the  district  that 
Edison  intended  to  light.  The  engines  were  set  up  in 
the  central  station  and  tried  out.  Then  the  troubles 
began.  The  engines  would  not  run  evenly,  one  would 
stop  and  another  go  dashing  on  at  a  tremendous  speed. 
Edison  tried  a  dozen  different  plans  before  he  brought 
anything  like  order  out  of  that  engine  chaos.  Finally 
he  had  some  engines  built  to  run  at  350  revolutions  and 
give  175  horse-power,  and  these  proved  what  was  re- 
quired. September  4,  1882,  he  turned  the  current  on  to 
the  mains  for  the  needed  light  service,  and  it  stayed  on 
with  only  one  short  stoppage  for  eight  years. 

In  this  way  Edison  invented  the  electric  light  and 
evolved  the  central  station  that  should  provide  the 
current  wherever  it  was  needed.  At  the  same  time  he 
had  worked  out  countless  adjuncts  to  it,  the  use  of  the 
fine  copper  thread  to  serve  as  a  fuse  wire  and  prevent 
short-circuiting,  the  meter,  consisting  of  a  small  glass 
cell,  containing  a  solution  in  which  two  plates  of  zinc 
are  placed,  and  which  shows  how  much  current  is  sup- 
plied, the  weighing  voltameter,  and  other  instruments 
for  estimating  the  current,  and  improvements  on  the 
motors  and  engines.  There  was  no  field  remotely 
connected  with  electric  lighting  that  he  did  not  enter. 
Yet  as  soon  as  the  invention  was  actually  before  the 


EDISON  AND  THE  EARLY  PHONOGRAPH 


EDISON  AND  THE  ELECTRIC  LIGHT      259 

world  business  competitors  sprang  up  on  every  hand. 
There  was  more  litigation  over  this  than  over  any 
other  of  Edison's  inventions.  "  I  fought  for  the  lamp 
for  fourteen  years,"  he  said,  "  and  when  I  finally  won 
my  rights  there  were  but  three  years  of  the  allotted 
seventeen  left  for  my  patent  to  live.  Now  it  has 
become  the  property  of  anybody  and  everybody." 

Edison  had  always  wanted  a  model  laboratory,  one 
that  should  be  fitted  with  the  most  perfect  instruments 
obtainable,  and  supplied  with  all  the  materials  he  could 
possibly  require  in  any  of  his  extraordinary  experi- 
ments. In  1886  he  bought  a  house  in  Llewellyn  Park, 
New  Jersey,  and  near  the  house  ten  acres  of  land,  on 
which  he  built  the  laboratory  of  his  dreams.  Here  he 
had  a  large  force  of  skilled  workmen  constantly  en- 
gaged in  developing  his  ideas,  and  the  expenses  were 
paid  by  the  many  commercial  companies  in  which  he 
was  interested,  and  which  profited  by  the  improve- 
ments he  was  continually  making  in  their  machinery. 

Many  volumes  might  be  written  to  tell  of  the  "  Wiz- 
ard's" achievements.  There  has  been  no  inventor  who 
has  covered  such  a  field,  and  each  step  he  takes  opens 
new  and  fascinating  vistas  to  his  ever-inquiring  eyes. 
Electricity  is  always  his  main  study,  and  electricity  he 
expects  in  time  will  revolutionize  modern  life  by  making 
heat,  power,  and  light  practically  as  cheap  as  air.  But 
other  subjects  have  concerned  him  almost  as  much. 
He  ranges  from  new  processes  for  making  guns  to  the 
supplying  of  ready-made  houses  built  of  cement. 
Everything  interests  him,  every  object  tempts  him  to 
try  his  hand  at  improving  on  it. 


260  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

The  phonograph  is  his  achievement,  and  the  practical 
development  of  the  kinetoscope.  He  has  built  electric 
locomotives  and  run  them,  he  has  made  many  discov- 
eries in  regard  to  platinum.  His  better  known  patents 
include  developments  of  the  electric  lamp,  the  telephone, 
storage-batteries,  ore-milling  machinery,  typewriters, 
electric  pens,  vocal  engines,  addressing  machines,  cast- 
iron  furniture,  wire-drawing,  methods  of  preserving 
fruit,  moving-picture  machines,  compressed-air  ma- 
chines, and  the  manufacture  of  plate  glass.  He  took 
out  a  patent  covering  wireless  telegraphy  in  1891,  but 
other  matters  were  then  absorbing  his  attention,  and  he 
was  quite  willing  to  yield  that  field  to  the  brilliant  Ital- 
ian, Marconi.  He  feels  no  jealousy  for  other  invent- 
ors. He  knows  how  vast  the  field  is,  and  how  many 
paths  constantly  beckon  him. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  great  inventors  are  born 
and  not  made,  but  many  of  them  seem,  nevertheless, 
to  have  drifted  into  the  work  that  gave  them  fame,  or 
to  have  hit  by  chance  on  their  compelling  idea.  It  was 
not  so  with  Edison.  He  was  beyond  any  doubt  born 
an  inventor.  With  him  to  see  was  to  ask  the  question 
why,  and  to  ask  that  question  was  to  start  his  thoughts 
on  the  train  that  was  to  bring  him  to  the  answer. 


XV 

MARCONI  AND  THE  WIRELESS 
TELEGRAPH 

1874-   - 

AT  first  sight  the  wireless  telegraph  seems  the  most 
wonderful  of  all  inventions  and  discoveries,  the  one 
that  is  least  easy  to  understand,  and  that  most  nearly 
approaches  that  magic  which  is  above  all  nature's  laws. 
Even  if  we  do  come  to  understand  it  it  loses  nothing  of 
its  wonder,  and  the  last  impression  is  very  like  the  first. 
We  can  understand  how  an  electric  current  travels 
through  a  wire,  even  if  we  cannot  understand  electricity, 
but  how  that  current  can  travel  through  limitless  space 
and  yet  reach  its  destination  strains  the  imagination. 
Yet  wireless  telegraphy  is  not  a  matter  of  the  imagina- 
tion, but  of  exact,  demonstrable  science. 

On  December  12,  1901,  a  quiet,  dark-skinned  young 
man  sat,  about  noontime,  in  a  room  of  the  old  barracks 
building  on  Signal  Hill,  near  St.  John's,  Newfound- 
land. On  the  table  in  front  of  him  was  a  mechanical 
apparatus,  with  an  ordinary  telephone  receiver  at  its 
side.  The  window  was  partly  open,  and  a  wire  led 
from  the  machine  on  the  table  through  the  window  to 
a  gigantic  kite  that  a  high  wind  kept  flying  fully  400 
feet  above  the  room.  The  young  man  picked  up  the 


262  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

receiver,  and  held  it  to  his  ear  for  a  long  time.  His 
face  showed  no  sign  of  excitement,  though  an  assist- 
ant, standing  near  him,  could  barely  keep  still.  Then, 
suddenly,  came  the  sharp  click  of  the  "tapper"  as  it 
struck  the  "  coherer."  That  meant  that  something  was 
coming.  The  young  man  listened  a  few  minutes,  and 
then  handed  the  receiver  to  his  assistant.  "  See  if  you 
can  hear  anything,  Mr.  Kemp,"  said  he.  The  other 
man  took  the  receiver,  and  a  moment  later  his  ear 
caught  the  sound  of  three  little  clicks,  faint,  but  distinct 
and  unmistakable,  the  three  dots  of  the  letter  S  in  the 
Morse  Code.  Those  clicks  had  been  sent  from  Poldhu, 
on  the  Cornish  coast  of  England,  and  they  had  traveled 
through  air  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  without  any 
wire  to  guide  them.  That  was  one  of  the  great  mo- 
ments of  history.  The  young  man  at  the  table  was 
Guglielmo  Marconi,  an  Italian. 

We  know  that  it  is  no  injustice  to  a  great  inventor 
to  say  that  other  men  had  imagined  what  he  achieved, 
and  had  earlier  tried  to  prove  their  theories.  It  takes 
nothing  from  the  glory  of  that  other  great  Italian, 
Columbus,  to  recall  that  other  sailors  had  planned  to 
cross  the  sea  to  the  west  of  Europe  and  that  some  had 
tried  it.  So  James  Clerk-Maxwell  had  proved  by  math- 
ematics the  electro-magnetic  theory  of  light  in  1864, 
and  Heinrich  Hertz  had  demonstrated  in  1888  by  actual 
experiment  that  electric  waves  exist  in  the  free  ether, 
and  Edison  had  for  a  time  worked  on  the  problem  of  a 
wireless  telegraph.  Marconi  devised  the  last  link  that 
made  the  wonder  possible,  and  caught  the  first  click 
that  came  across  the  sea,  and  to  him  belong  the  palms. 


MARCONI  AND  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH     263 

Judge  Townsend,  in  deciding  a  suit  in  a  United  States 
court  in  1905,  declared,  "  It  would  seem,  therefore,  to 
be  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  attempts  to  belittle 
Marconi's  great  invention  that,  with  the  whole  scientific 
world  awakened  by  the  disclosures  of  Hertz  in  1887 
to  the  new  and  undeveloped  possibilities  of  electric 
waves,  nine  years  elapsed  without  a  single  practical  or 
commercially  successful  result,  and  Marconi  was  the 
first  to  describe  and  the  first  to  achieve  the  transmission 
of  definite  intelligible  signals  by  means  of  these  Hertz- 
ian waves." 

Marconi  was  born  at  Villa  Griffone,  near  Bologna,  in 
1874,  so  that  he  was  under  thirty  when  he  caught  that 
first  transatlantic  message.  He  studied  at  Leghorn 
under  Professor  Rosa,  and  later  at  the  University 
of  Bologna  with  Professor  Righi.  He  was  always 
absorbed  in  science,  and  experimented,  holiday  after 
holiday,  on  his  father's  estate.  He  was  precocious  to 
an  extraordinary  degree,  for  in  1895,  when  only  twenty- 
one,  he  had  produced  a  wireless  transmitting  apparatus 
that  he  patented  in  Italy.  Within  a  year  he  had  taken 
out  patents  in  England  and  in  other  European  countries, 
and  had  proposed  a  wireless  telegraph  system  to  the 
English  Post-Office  Department.  That  Department, 
through  Sir  William  Henry  Preece,  Engineer-in-Chief 
of  Telegraphs,  took  up  the  subject,  and  reported  very 
favorably  on  the  Marconi  System.  Marconi  himself,  at 
the  House  of  Commons,  telegraphed  by  wireless  across 
the  Thames,  a  distance  of  250  yards.  In  June,  1897,  he 
sent  a  message  nine  miles,  in  July  twelve  miles,  and  in 
1898  he  succeeded  in  sending  one  across  the  English 


264  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

Channel  to  France,  thirty-two  miles.  In  1901  he 
covered  a  space  of  3,000  miles. 

Let  us  now  see  what  it  was  that  Marconi  had  actually 
done. 

Wireless  signals  are  in  reality  wave  motions  in  the 
magnetic  forces  of  the  earth,  or,  in  other  words,  dis- 
turbances of  those  forces.  They  are  sent  out  through 
this  magnetic  field,  and  follow  the  earth's  curvature,  in 
the  same  way  that  tidal  waves  follow  the  ocean's  sur- 
face. Everywhere  about  us  there  is  a  sea  of  what 
science  calls  the  ether,  and  the  ether  is  constantly  in  a 
state  of  turmoil,  because  it  is  the  medium  through  which 
energy,  radiating  from  the  sun,  is  carried  to  the  earth 
and  other  planets.  This  energy  is  transmitted  through 
the  free  ether  in  waves,  which  are  known  as  electro- 
magnetic waves.  It  was  this  fact  that  Professor  Hertz 
discovered,  and  the  waves  are  sometimes  called  the 
Hertzian  waves.  Light  is  one  variety  of  wave  motion, 
and  heat  another.  The  ether  must  be  distinguished 
from  the  air,  for  science  means  by  it  a  medium  which 
exists  everywhere  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  permeating 
all  space  and  all  matter.  The  ether  exists  in  a  vacuum, 
for,  although  all  the  air  may  have  been  withdrawn,  an 
object  placed  in  a  vacuum  can  still  be  seen  from  out- 
side, and  hence  the  wave  motions  of  light  are  traveling 
through  a  space  devoid  of  air. 

Professor  Hertz  proved  in  1888  that  a  spark,  or  dis- 
ruptive discharge  of  electricity,  caused  electro-magnetic 
waves  to  radiate  away  in  all  directions  through  the 
ether.  The  waves  acted  exactly  like  ripples  that 
radiate  from  a  stone  when  it  strikes  the  water.  These 


MARCONI  AND  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH     265 

Hertzian  waves  were  found  to  travel  with  the  same 
velocity  as  light,  and  would  circle  the  world  eight  times 
in  a  second.  As  soon  as  the  existence  of  these  waves 
was  known  many  scientists  began  to  consider  whether 
they  could  not  be  used  for  telegraphy.  But  the  prob- 
lem was  a  very  difficult  one.  The  questions  were 
how  to  transmit  the  energy  to  a  distance,  and  how  to 
make  a  receiver  that  should  be  sensitive  enough  to  be 
affected  by  it. 

Let  us  picture  a  body  of  still  water  with  a  twig  float- 
ing upon  its  surface.  If  a  stone  is  thrown  into  the 
water  ripples  radiate  in  all  directions,  these  waves  be- 
coming weaker  as  the  circles  they  form  become  larger, 
or  in  other  words  as  they  grow  more  distant  from  the 
point  where  the  stone  struck  the  water.  When  the 
waves  reach  the  floating  twig  they  will  move  it,  and 
when  they  cease  the  twig  will  be  motionless  again. 
Should  there  be  grasses  or  rocks  protruding  up  from 
the  water  the  motion  given  to  the  twig  by  the  waves 
would  be  lessened,  or  distorted,  or  changed  in  many 
ways,  depending  on  the  intervening  object.  Whether 
the  waves  will  actually  impart  motion  to  the  twig  will 
depend  on  the  force  by  which  these  waves  were  started 
and  upon  the  lightness  of  the  twig,  or  its  sensitiveness 
to  the  ripples  as  they  radiate.  If  the  water  were  dis- 
turbed by  some  other  force  than  the  stone  the  twig 
would  be  moved  by  that  other  force,  and  the  observer 
could  not  tell  from  what  direction  the  motion  had  come, 
or  how  it  had  been  caused.  Applying  this  to  wireless 
telegraphy  one  may  say  that  a  device  must  be  used 
that  will  send  out  waves  of  a  certain  length,  and  that 


266  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

the  receiver  must  be  constructed  so  that  it  will  respond 
only  to  waves  of  the  length  sent  by  that  transmitter. 

There  must  therefore  be  accurate  tuning  of  the  two 
instruments.  Let  a  weight  be  fastened  at  the  end  of  a 
spiral  spring  and  then  be  struck.  The  weight  will 
oscillate  at  a  uniform  rate,  or  so  many  times  a  minute. 
If  this  be  held  so  that  it  strikes  the  water  the  movement 
of  the  spring  will  create  a  certain  number  of  waves  a 
minute.  If  now  a  second  weight,  attached  to  a  second 
spring,  be  hung  down  into  the  water,  the  waves  caused 
by  the  first  will  reach  the  second,  and  if  the  springs  be 
alike  the  movements  or  oscillations  will  correspond. 
But  if  the  springs  were  not  alike,  or  if,  in  other  words, 
the  two  instruments  were  not  in  tune,  the  wave  motions 
would  not  be  received  and  copied  accurately.  There- 
fore in  wireless  telegraphy  the  instrument  that  is  to 
impart  the  motion  to  the  electro-magnetic  waves  that 
fill  the  ether  must  be  tuned  in  accord  with  the  instru- 
ment that  is  to  receive  the  motion  of  those  waves. 

The  sending  of  the  wireless  message  requires  a  source 
of  production  of  the  electro-magnetic  waves.  This  is 
obtained  by  what  is  known  as  capacity,  or  in  other 
words,  the  power  that  is  possessed  by  any  metal  surface 
to  retain  a  charge  of  electricity,  and  by  inductance,  pro- 
cured when  a  constantly  changing  current  is  sent 
through  a  coil  of  wire.  This  capacity  and  inductance 
must  be  adjusted  to  give  exactly  the  same  frequency  of 
motion  to  the  waves,  or  the  same  oscillations,  if  the  re- 
ceiver that  is  tuned  to  vibrate  to  those  waves  is  to  re- 
ceive that  message  accurately.  The  receiving  station 
must  have  the  means  to  intercept  the  waves,  and  then 


MARCONI  AND  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH    267 

transform  them  again  into  electrical  oscillations  that 
shall  correspond  to  those  sent  out  from  the  transmitting 
station. 

As  early  as  1844  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  had  succeeded 
in  telegraphing  without  wires  under  the  Susquehanna 
River,  and  in  1854  James  Bowman  Lindsay,  a  Scotch- 
man, had  sent  a  message  a  distance  of  two  miles  through 
water  without  wires.  Sir  William  Henry  Preece,  by 
using  an  induced  current,  had  telegraphed  several  miles 
without  a  connecting  wire.  But  the  discoveries  made 
in  regard  to  the  Hertzian  waves  placed  the  subject  on 
a  different  footing,  and  the  possibility  of  an  actual  usa- 
ble wireless  telegraph  was  now  looked  at  from  a  new 
view-point. 

Professor  Hertz  had  used  a  simple  form  of  apparatus 
to  obtain  his  free  ether  waves.  A  loop  of  wire,  with 
the  ends  almost  touching  each  other,  had  been  his  re- 
ceiver, or  detector.  When  he  set  his  generator,  or  in- 
strument to  create  the  oscillations,  in  operation,  and 
held  the  detector  near  it,  he  could  see  very  minute  elec- 
tric sparks  passing  between  the  ends  of  the  loop  of 
wire.  This  proved  the  existence  of  the  electro-magnetic 
waves. 

In  1890  Professor  Eduard  Branly  found  that  loose 
metallic  filings  became  good  conductors  of  electricity 
when  there  were  electric  oscillations  at  hand.  He 
demonstrated  this  by  placing  the  filings  between  metal 
plugs  in  a  glass  tube,  and  connecting  this  in  circuit 
with  a  battery  and  electric  indicator.  Professor  Oliver 
Lodge  named  this  device  of  Branly's  a  "  coherer,"  and 
when  he  found  that  it  was  more  sensitive  than  the  Hertz 


268  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

detector  he  combined  it  with  the  Hertz  oscillator.  This 
was  in  1894,  and  the  combination  of  oscillator  and  co- 
herer actually  formed  the  first  real  wireless  set. 

Wireless  stations  on  shore  are  marked  by  very  tall 
masts,  which  support  a  single  wire,  or  a  set  of  wires, 
which  are  known  as  the  antenna.  The  antenna  has 
electrical  capacity,  and  when  it  is  connected  with  the 
other  apparatus  needful  to  produce  the  oscillations  it 
disturbs  the  earth's  magnetic  field.  For  temporary 
service,  as  in  the  case  of  military  operations,  the  antenna 
is  frequently  attached  to  captive  balloons  or  kites,  and 
so  suspended  high  in  air.  On  ships  the  antenna  is  fast- 
ened to  the  masts.  The  step  that  led  to  this  addition 
was  taken  by  Count  Popoff  in  1895,  when  he  attached 
a  vertical  wire  to  one  side  of  the  coherer  of  the  receiver 
of  Professor  Lodge,  and  connected  the  other  side  with 
the  ground.  He  used  this  to  learn  the  approach  of 
thunder-storms. 

With  a  knowledge  of  electro-magnetic  waves,  with  a 
high-power  oscillator,  and  a  sensitive  coherer,  it  re- 
mained for  Marconi  to  connect  an  antenna  to  the  trans- 
mitter, and  thus  secure  a  wide  and  practicable  working 
field  for  the  sending  and  receiving  of  his  messages. 
This  he  did  in  1896,  and  it  was  this  addition  that  made 
the  wireless  telegraph  of  real  use  to  men.  Improve- 
ments in  the  transmitter  and  receiver  have  constantly 
increased  the  power  of  the  invention,  and  have  grad- 
ually allowed  him  to  employ  it  over  greater  and  greater 
distances. 

With  Marconi's  successful  demonstrations  of  wireless 
in  England  its  use  at  once  began.  The  Trinity  House 


WIRELESS  STATION  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY,  SHOWING  THE  ANTENNA 


MARCONI  AND  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH     269 

installed  a  station  at  the  East  Goodwin  Lighthouse, 
which  communicated  with  shore  and  proved  of  the 
greatest  value  in  preventing  shipwrecks.  The  Marconi 
Wireless  Telegraph  Company  was  organized  in  1897, 
and  made  agreements  to  erect  coast  stations  for  the 
Italian,  Canadian,  and  Newfoundland  governments,  and 
for  Lloyd's.  The  great  shipping  lines  established  wire- 
less stations  on  their  vessels,  and  the  antenna  were  soon 
to  be  seen  on  points  of  vantage  along  every  coast.  On 
December  12,  1901,  Marconi  in  Newfoundland  caught 
the  message  sent  from  Cornwall ;  on  January  19,  1903, 
President  Roosevelt  sent  the  first  "official"  wireless 
message  across  the  Atlantic  to  Edward  VII,  and  in 
October,  1905,  a  message  was  sent  from  England  across 
the  mountains,  valleys  and  cities  of  Europe  to  the  bat- 
tle-ship Renown,  stationed  at  the  entrance  to  the  Suez 
Canal. 

The  system  of  operating  wireless  telegraphy  is  in 
some  respects  similar  to  that  of  the  ordinary  telegraph. 
The  Morse  Code  is  largely  used  in  America,  and  a 
modification  of  it,  called  the  Continental  Code,  in 
Europe.  When  the  wireless  operator  wishes  to  send  a 
message  to  another  station  he  "listens  in,"  as  it  is 
called,  by  connecting  his  receiving  apparatus  with  the 
adjacent  antenna  and  the  ground.  He  has  the  tele- 
phone receiver  attached  to  his  ears.  Next  he  adjusts 
his  receiving  circuits  for  a  number  of  wave  lengths.  If 
he  catches  no  signals  in  his  telephone  receiver  he  un- 
derstands that  no  messages  are  being  sent  within  his 
area.  Then  he  "throws  in"  the  transmitting  appa- 
ratus, which  automatically  disconnects  the  receiving 


2/o  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

end.  He  gives  the  letters  that  stand  for  the  station 
with  which  he  wants  to  communicate,  and  adds  the  let- 
ters of  his  own  station.  He  does  this  a  number  of 
times,  to  insure  the  other  station  picking  up  the  call. 
Then  he  "listens  in,"  and  if  he  receives  the  clicks  that 
show  that  the  other  station  has  heard  him  he  is  ready 
to  establish  regular  telegraphic  communication. 

A  number  of  distant  stations  may  be  sending  mes- 
sages simultaneously.  In  that  case  the  operator  tunes 
his  instrument,  or  in  other  words  adjusts  his  apparatus 
to  suit  the  wave  length  of  the  station  with  which  he 
wishes  to  communicate.  In  this  way  he  "  tunes  out  " 
the  other  messages,  and  receives  only  the  one  he  wants. 
If,  however,  the  stations  that  are  sending  simultane- 
ously happen  to  be  situated  near  together,  as  in  the 
case  of  several  vessels  near  a  shore  station,  the  operator 
is  often  unable  to  do  this  "  tuning  out,"  and  must  try 
to  catch  the  message  he  wishes  by  the  sound  of  the 
"spark"  of  the  transmitting  station,  if  he  can  in  any 
way  distinguish  it  from  the  "  sparks "  of  the  other 
messages. 

There  are  several  ways  of  determining  when  the  two 
circuits  are  in  tune.  One  is  to  insert  a  hot-wire  current 
meter  between  the  antenna  and  the  inductance,  which 
indicates  the  strength  of  the  oscillatory  current  that  has 
been  established.  A  maximum  reading  can  then  be 
made  by  manipulating  the  flexible  connections,  and 
this  will  show  whether  the  two  circuits  are  in  accord. 
The  other  method  is  by  using  a  device  that  indicates 
the  wave  length.  This  measures  the  frequency  of  one 
circuit,  and  then  the  other  circuit  can  be  adjusted  to 


MARCONI  AND  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH     271 

give  a  corresponding  wave  length.  The  larger  the 
antenna  the  longer  will  be  the  wave  length  and  the 
greater  the  power  of  the  apparatus.  It  is  usual  to  em- 
ploy a  short  wave  length  for  low-power,  short-distance 
equipments,  and  a  long  wave  length  for  the  high-power, 
long-distance  stations. 

Wireless  telegraphy  has  already  proved  itself  of  the 
greatest  value  on  the  ocean.  It  has  sent  news  of  storms 
and  wrecks  across  tossing  seas  and  brought  rescue  to 
scores  of  voyagers.  Ships  may  now  keep  in  constant 
communication  with  their  offices  on  shore.  The  great 
lines  send  Marconigrams  to  each  other  in  mid-ocean, 
and  publish  daily  papers  giving  the  latest  news  of  the 
whole  world.  Greater  distances  have  so  far  been 
covered  over  water  than  over  land,  but  this  branch  of 
the  service  is  being  rapidly  developed,  and  it  must 
prove  in  time  of  the  greatest  value  across  deserts  and 
wild  countries,  where  a  regular  telegraph  service  would 
be  impracticable.  In  such  a  country  as  Alaska,  where 
there  are  constant  heavy  sleet  and  snow  storms,  the 
wireless  should  prove  invaluable. 

The  telegraph  and  cable  companies  did  their  best  to 
ignore  the  claims  of  the  wireless  systems,  but  they  have 
been  compelled  to  acknowledge  them  at  last.  Rival 
companies  have  sprung  up,  using  slightly  different 
varieties  of  apparatus.  Each  of  the  big  companies  that 
were  ready  to  compete  with  the  Marconi  Company  by 
1906,  the  German  Telefunken  Company,  the  American 
National  Electric  Signaling  Company,  the  American 
De  Forest  Company,  and  the  British  Lodge-Muirhead 
Wireless  Syndicate,  had  certain  peculiar  advantages 


272  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

over  the  others.  The  laws  relating  to  the  uses  of  wire- 
less, and  especially  the  rights  of  governments  to  the 
sole  use  of  the  systems  in  case  of  war,  are  in  a  confused 
condition,  but  eventually  order  must  come  from  this 
chaos  as  it  did  in  the  history  of  the  telephone  and  tele- 
graph. 

Wireless  has  brought  the  possibility  of  communica- 
tion between  any  two  individuals,  no  matter  where  they 
may  be  situated,  within  the  realm  of  fact.  A  severing 
of  communication  with  any  part  of  the  world  will  be 
impossible.  Storms  and  earthquakes  that  destroy 
telegraph  systems,  enemies  that  cut  submarine  cables, 
cannot  prevent  the  sending  of  Marconigrams.  The 
African  explorer  and  the  Polar  adventurer  can  each 
talk  with  his  countrymen.  The  use  of  this  agency  is 
still  in  its  earliest  youth,  but  it  has  already  done  so 
much  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  to  what  a  stature  it 
may  grow.  It  should  cut  down  the  rates  for  using  wire 
and  cable  systems,  and  ultimately  place  the  means  of 
communicating  directly  with  any  one  on  land  or  sea 
within  the  reach  of  every  man.  All  the  world's  infor- 
mation will  be  at  the  instant  disposal  of  whomsoever 
needs  it,  and  all  this  is  due  to  those  electro-magnetic 
waves  that  permeate  the  ether,  waiting  to  be  put  into 
service  at  the  touch  of  man. 


XVI 

THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP 

Wilbur  Wright  1867- 
Orville  Wright  1871- 

MEN  have  always  wanted  to  be  able  to  fly.  So  long 
as  there  have  been  birds  to  watch,  so  long  have  men 
of  speculative  minds  wondered  at  the  secret  of  their 
flight.  Early  in  recorded  history  men  built  ships  to 
sail  across  the  seas,  but  the  problem  of  air  navigation 
has  always  baffled  them.  The  balloon  came  into  being, 
but  the  balloon  for  years  was  only  a  toy,  dependent  on 
the  wind's  whim,  and  of  the  least  possible  service  to 
men.  The  problem  of  aerial  navigation  was  to  master 
the  currents  of  the  air  as  the  sailing-vessel  and  the 
steamship  had  overcome  the  waves  and  tides  at  sea. 

The  history  of  invention  often  shows  that  some  great 
thinker,  or  school  of  thinkers,  has  stated  a  scientific  con- 
clusion that  generations  of  later  men  have  never  dared 
to  question.  The  laws  of  Aristotle  in  regard  to  falling 
bodies  were  never  doubted  until  Galileo  began  to 
wonder  if  they  could  be  true.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  had 
stated,  and  mathematical  computations  had  proved  his 
words,  that  a  mechanical  flying-machine  was  an  im- 
possibility. Any  such  machine  must  be  heavier  than 
the  air  it  flew  in.  The  weight  of  Newton's  authority 
and  the  weight  of  figures  were  compelling  facts,  such 
as  scientists  had  no  mind  to  doubt.  But  in  spite  of 


274  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

these  facts  men  could  see  that  birds  flew,  although  they 
were  often  a  thousand  times  heavier  than  the  air  they 
went  through.  And  that  sight  kept  men  speculating, 
in  spite  of  all  the  figures  and  scientific  dicta  of  the  ages. 

It  was  known  for  centuries  that  if  a  kite  was  held  in 
position  by  a  string  reaching  to  the  ground  the  wind 
blowing  against  it  would  keep  it  supported  in  the  air. 
Now  if  the  kite,  instead  of  being  stationary  in  moving 
air,  were  to  be  moved  constantly  through  quiet  air  it 
would  also  stay  up.  The  motive  power  might  be  sup- 
plied by  a  motor  and  propellers,  but  in  order  to  do 
away  with  the  string  which  holds  the  kite  in  position 
the  aeroplane,  which  is  only  a  big  kite  in  principle,  must 
have  some  way  of  balancing  itself  so  that  it  will  stay  in 
the  proper  position  in  the  air. 

A  German  engineer,  Otto  Lilienthal,  made  a  study 
of  the  mechanics  of  birds'  flights,  and  determined  to 
learn  their  secret  by  actual  trial.  He  built  wings  that 
were  similar  to  those  of  the  hawk  and  buzzard,  the 
great  soaring  birds,  and  in  1891  he  began  to  throw 
himself  from  the  tops  of  hills,  supported  by  these  wings, 
and  glided  through  the  air  into  the  valleys.  In  this 
way  he  learned  new  laws  of  flight,  contradicting  many 
theories  of  the  scientists,  and  opening  a  new  world  of 
speculation.  But  in  August,  1896,  his  wings  broke  in 
a  sudden  gust  of  wind,  he  fell  fifty  feet,  and  died  of  a 
broken  back. 

It  was  this  problem  of  balancing  that  had  cost  Lil- 
ienthal his  life.  He  had  tried  to  balance  himself  by 
throwing  his  weight  quickly  from  side  to  side  as  he 
held  to  his  "  gliding  machine."  His  pupil,  Percy  S. 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        275 

Pilcher,  an  Englishman,  continued  his  experiments, 
trying  the  same  method  of  balancing,  but  in  September, 
1899,  his  wings  broke,  and  he  met  the  same  fate  as  his 
teacher.  It  seemed  that  men  could  not  shift  their  weight 
quickly  enough  to  meet  the  gusts  of  wind. 

Meantime  new  theories  of  flight  were  being  worked 
out  in  the  United  States.  Professor  S.  P.  Langley,  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institution,  had  made  experiments  with 
plates  of  metal  moved  through  the  air  at  various  rates 
of  speed  and  at  different  angles,  and  had  published  his 
new  conclusions  in  regard  to  the  support  the  air  would 
furnish  flying-planes  in  1891.  In  1896  he  built  a  small 
steam-aeroplane  that  flew  a  distance  of  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  down  the  Potomac  River.  And  in  the  same 
year  Octave  Chanute,  of  Chicago,  with  the  aid  of  A. 
M.  Herring,  built  a  multiple-wing  machine  and  tried  it 
successfully  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Michigan.  But  the 
problem  of  balancing  was  not  yet  solved,  and  here 
Wilbur  and  Orville  Wright  entered  upon  the  scene. 

The  Wrights'  home  was  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  and  there 
they  had  spent  their  boyhood,  in  no  way  distinguished 
from  their  neighbors.  Their  father  had  been  a  teacher, 
an  editor,  and  a  bishop  of  the  United  Brethren  Church. 
He  had  traveled  a  great  deal,  and  was  an  unusually 
well-educated  man.  Their  mother  had  been  to  college. 
Their  two  older  brothers  and  their  sister  were  college 
graduates,  and  the  younger  boys  would  have  had  the 
same  education  had  their  mother  not  died  and  they  de- 
cided to  stay  at  home  and  look  after  affairs  for  their 
father,  who  was  often  away.  In  telling  the  story  of 
their  invention  in  The  Century  for  September,  1908,  they 


276  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

said,  "  Late  in  the  autumn  of  1878  our  father  came  into 
the  house  one  evening  with  some  object  concealed  in 
his  hands  and,  before  we  could  see  what  it  was,  tossed 
it  into  the  air.  Instead  of  falling  to  the  floor,  as  we  ex- 
pected, it  flew  across  the  room  and  struck  the  ceiling, 
where  it  fluttered  a  while  and  finally  sank  to  the  floor. 
It  was  a  little  toy  known  to  scientists  as  a  helicoptere, 
but  which  we,  with  sublime  disregard  for  science,  dubbed 
a  '  bat.'  ...  It  lasted  only  a  short  time,  but  its 
memory  was  abiding."  At  that  time  Wilbur  was  eleven 
and  Orville  seven  years  old. 

These  two  brothers,  scientifically  minded,  started  a 
bicycle  shop,  and  bade  fair  to  become  ordinarily  pros- 
perous citizens  of  Dayton,  much  like  their  neighbors. 
They  were,  however,  deeply  interested  in  news  from 
the  world  of  science  and  invention,  and  when  they  read 
in  1896  that  Lilienthal  had  been  killed  by  a  fall  from 
his  glider  they  began  to  wonder  what  were  the  real  dif- 
ficulties that  must  be  overcome  in  flying.  Further 
reading  awakened  a  deep  interest  in  the  problem  of  the 
airship,  and  they  worked  upon  it,  at  first  as  a  scientific 
pastime,  but  soon  in  all  seriousness.  They  built  mod- 
els in  their  workshop,  and  experimented  with  them. 
Then,  in  1900,  Wilbur  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  was 
going  On  a  holiday  to  a  place  in  North  Carolina  called 
Kitty  Hawk,  to  try  a  glider. 

The  Wrights  realized  in  1900  that  the  only  problem 
to  be  solved  was  that  of  equilibrium.  Men  had  made 
aeroplanes  that  would  support  them  in  motion,  and  also 
engines  that  were  light  enough  to  drive  the  planes  and 
carry  their  own  weight  and  that  of  the  aviator.  But 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        277 

when  the  wind  blew  the  aeroplane  was  as  likely  as  not 
to  capsize.  Their  study  was  how  to  keep  the  machine 
from  turning  over. 

The  air  does  not  blow  in  regular  currents.  Instead, 
near  the  earth,  it  is  continually  tossing  up  and  down, 
and  often  whirling  about  in  rotary  masses.  There  is 
constant  atmospheric  turmoil,  and  the  question  is  how 
to  maintain  a  balance  in  these  currents  that  bear  the 
machine.  Put  in  technical  form  it  is  how  to  make  the 
centre  of  gravity  coincide  with  the  centre  of  air- 
pressure. 

The  shifting  of  the  air-currents  means  that  the  centre 
of  air-pressure  moves.  The  aeroplane  is  sailed  at  a 
slight  angle  to  the  direction  in  which  it  is  heading,  and 
the  centre  of  air-pressure  is  on  the  forward  surfaces  of 
the  machine.  The  wind  strikes  the  front,  but  rarely 
touches  the  back  of  the  plane,  and  so  gains  a  great 
leverage  that  adds  materially  to  its  power  to  overturn 
the  machine.  As  the  wind  veers  continually  it  is  easy 
to  see  the  aviator's  difficulty  in  keeping  track  of  this 
centre  of  pressure. 

Both  Lilienthal  and  Chanute  had  tried  to  balance  by 
shifting  their  weight,  but  this  was  extremely  exhaust- 
ing, and  often  could  not  be  done  in  time  to  meet  the 
changing  currents.  The  Wrights  realized  that  a  more 
automatic  method  of  meeting  these  changes  must  be 
found,  and  they  worked  it  out  by  shifting  the  rudder 
and  the  surfaces  of  the  airship  as  it  met  the  air- 
currents. 

The  earlier  aviators  had  found  that  two  planes,  or 
"  double-deckers,"  gave  the  best  results.  The  Wrights 


278  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

adopted  this  type,  believing  that  it  was  the  strongest 
form,  and  could  be  made  more  compact  and  be  more 
easily  managed  than  the  single  plane,  or  the  many- 
winged  type.  They  built  their  gliding-machine  of  cloth 
and  spruce  and  steel  wire.  But  instead  of  the  avia- 
tor hanging  below  the  wings,  as  in  the  other  planes, 
he  lay  flat  across  the  centre  of  the  lower  wing.  A 
horizontal  rudder  extended  in  front  of  the  plane  in- 
stead of  behind  it.  This  not  only  guided  the  flight  of 
the  machine,  but  counterbalanced  the  changes  of  the 
centre  of  air-pressure.  To  steer,  the  wings  were  moved 
by  cords  controlled  by  the  aviator's  body.  They  con- 
sidered that  the  shiftings  of  the  air  were  too  rapid  to 
be  followed  by  conscious  thought,  and  so  their  plan 
was  to  have  a  plane  that  would  balance  automatically, 
or  by  reflex  action,  as  a  bicycle  is  balanced. 

Langley  had  adopted  wings  that  slanted  upward 
from  the  point  at  which  they  joined,  copying  the  wings 
of  a  soaring  buzzard.  The  Wrights  doubted  whether 
this  was  the  best  form  for  shifting  weather,  and  built 
theirs  more  on  the  pattern  of  the  gull's  wings,  curving 
slightly  at  the  tips.  They  were  made  of  cloth,  arched 
over  ribs  to  imitate  the  curved  surfaces  of  bird's  wings, 
and  were  fastened  to  two  rectangular  wooden  frames, 
fixed  one  above  the  other  by  braces  of  wood  and  wire. 

Their  next  step  was  to  try  to  find  some  method  by 
which  they  might  keep  their  gliding-machine  continu- 
ously in  the  air,  so  that  they  might  gain  an  automatic 
balance.  The  old  method  of  launching  the  plane  from 
a  hill  gave  little  chance  for  a  real  test.  Study  taught 
them  that  birds  are  really  aeroplanes,  and  that  buzzards 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        279 

and  hawks  and  gulls  stay  in  the  air  by  balancing  on  or 
sliding  down  rising  currents  of  air.  They  looked  for  a 
place  where  there  should  be  winds  of  proper  strength 
to  balance  their  machine  for  a  considerable  time  as  it 
slid  downward,  and  decided  to  make  their  experiments 
at  Kitty  Hawk,  North  Carolina,  on  the  stretch  of  sand- 
dunes  that  divided  Albemarle  Sound  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  They  calculated  that  their  gliding-machine, 
with  165  square  feet  of  surface,  should  be  held  up  by  a 
wind  blowing  twenty-one  miles  an  hour.  The  machine 
was  to  be  raised  like  a  kite,  with  men  holding  ropes 
fastened  to  the  end  of  each  wing.  When  the  ropes 
were  freed  the  aviator  would  glide  slowly  to  the  ground, 
having  time  to  test  the  principle  of  equilibrium.  This 
plan  would  also  do  away  with  the  former  need  of 
carrying  the  plane  up  to  the  top  of  a  hill  before  each 
flight. 

They  found  in  practice  that  their  plan  of  raising  the 
plane  like  a  kite  was  impracticable,  and  that  the  wind 
was  not  strong  enough  to  support  it  at  a  proper  angle. 
They  had  to  glide  from  hills  as  others  had  done,  but 
they  discovered  that  their  theory  of  steering  and  bal- 
ancing by  automatically  shifting  surfaces  worked  very 
much  better  than  the  old  method  of  shifting  the  avia- 
tor's weight. 

In  1901  and  1902  the  Wrights  continued  their  glid- 
ing experiments  at  Kitty  Hawk.  Their  new  machines 
were  much  larger,  and  they  added  a  vertical  tail  in 
order  to  secure  better  lateral  balance.  Sometimes  the 
wind  was  strong  enough  to  lift  the  aviator  above  the 
point  from  which  he  had  started  and  hold  him  motion- 


280  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

less  in  the  air  for  half  a  minute.  They  made  new 
tables  of  calculation  for  aerial  flight,  and  found  that  a 
wind  of  eighteen  miles  an  hour  would  keep  their  plane 
and  its  operator  in  the  air. 

Their  next  step  was  to  place  a  gas-engine  on  their 
aeroplane  and  attempt  actual  mechanical  flight.  After 
many  experiments  they  succeeded,  and  on  December 
17,  1903,  the  first  airship  made  four  flights  at  Kitty 
Hawk.  In  the  longest  flight  it  stayed  in  the  air  fifty- 
nine  seconds,  and  flew  against  a  twenty-mile  wind.  It 
weighed,  with  the  aviator,  about  745  pounds,  and  was 
propelled  by  a  gas-engine  weighing  240  pounds,  and 
having  twelve  or  thirteen  horse-power.  That  test  as- 
sured them  that  mechanical  flight  was  possible. 

The  Wrights  had  now  solved  the  real  problem  of 
aviation,  equilibrium.  They  were  ready  to  try  mechan- 
ical flights  in  places  where  the  wind-conditions  were 
less  favorable  than  at  Kitty  Hawk.  They  secured  a 
swampy  meadow  eight  miles  east  of  Dayton,  and,  using 
that  secrecy  which  they  have  always  believed  was 
necessary  to  the  protection  of  their  interests,  began  to 
fly  there.  Their  airship  flew  well  in  a  straight  course, 
but  there  was  difficulty  in  turning  corners.  Some- 
times it  could  be  done,  but  occasionally  the  plane  would 
lose  its  balance  as  it  turned,  and  have  to  be  brought  to 
the  ground.  In  time  they  remedied  this,  and  on  Sep- 
tember 20,  1904,  they  were  able  to  make  a  complete 
circle.  Later  in  that  same  year  they  made  two  flights 
of  three  miles  each  around  a  circular  course. 

The  Wrights'  system  of  balance,  the  great  original 
feature  of  their  invention,  is  attained  by  what  is  called 


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THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        281 

the  warping  of  the  wings.  When  they  are  flying,  and 
some  cause,  such  as  a  change  in  their  position,  or  a 
sudden  gust  of  wind,  makes  the  airship  tip,  a  lever  is 
moved,  and  the  two  planes  warp  down  on  the  end  that 
is  canting  toward  the  earth.  Simultaneously  the  two 
opposite  ends  of  the  planes  warp  up.  The  lower  ends 
at  once  gain  greater  lifting  power,  the  upper  ends  less. 
Therefore  the  airship  stops  tilting  and  comes  back  to 
an  even  flight.  The  lever  is  instantly  moved  to  keep 
the  machine  from  tipping  to  the  other  side. 

When  the  airship  came  to  turn  a  corner  it  was  apt 
to  "  skid."  It  slid  from  its  balance,  owing  to  the  change 
in  its  course  against  the  currents  of  air.  The  Wrights 
overcame  this  by  having  the  planes  of  their  machine 
warp  at  the  same  instant  that  the  rudder  shifts  the 
course,  by  this  raising  one  wing  and  lowering  the 
other,  so  that  the  aeroplane  cants  over  and  makes  the 
circle  leaning  against  the  wind,  on  the  same  principle 
that  a  bicycler  takes  a  curve  on  an  angle  instead  of 
riding  upright.  The  problems  of  balance  and  of  turn- 
ing corners  were  therefore  both  met  and  solved  by 
warping  the  planes  to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  air- 
ship's contact  with  the  wind. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  Wrights'  success 
was  that  they  had  studied  their  subject  long  and  faith- 
fully before  they  tried  to  fly.  They  had  worked  with 
their  gliders  several  years,  and  had  made  new  calcu- 
lations of  the  changing  angles  and  currents  of  air. 
They  had  been  in  no  hurry,  and  when  they  built  their 
first  real  airship  they  made  use  of  all  the  principles  of 
aerodynamics  that  they  had  discovered.  They  knew 


282  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

that  their  machine  would  fly  before  they  tried  it,  be- 
cause they  knew  exactly  what  its  various  surfaces 
would  do  in  the  air.  The  propeller  was  the  only  part 
of  their  airship  they  had  not  studied  when  they  began 
to  build.  When  they  found  that  they  could  not  use 
the  figures  that  had  governed  the  construction  of 
marine  propellers  they  set  to  work  to  solve  this  prob- 
lem in  the  same  thoroughgoing  way.  They  mastered 
it,  and  their  success  with  their  propeller  is  the 
feature  of  their  airship  in  which  they  take  the  greatest 
pride. 

The  first  official  statement  of  their  progress  in  flying 
was  made  in  letters  of  the  Wrights  in  the  Aerophile 
in  1905,  and  to  the  Aero  Club  of  America  in  1906. 
These  declared  that  they  had  begun  actual  flight  with 
a  motor-driven  aeroplane  on  December  17,  1903,  had 
then  spent  the  year  1904  in  experimenting  with  flights 
in  circular  courses,  and  had  so  learned  the  proper 
methods  of  control  of  the  planes  by  1905  that  they  had 
at  last  made  continuous  flights  of  eleven,  twelve, 
fifteen,  twenty,  twenty-one,  and  twenty-four  miles,  at  a 
speed  of  about  thirty-eight  miles  an  hour,  and  had 
been  able  to  alight  safely  in  each  instance,  ready  to 
fly  again  as  soon  as  their  fuel  was  replenished. 

Until  that  date  the  inventors  had  been  singularly 
successful  in  keeping  their  experiments  from  public 
knowledge.  They  had  reached  agreements  with  the 
farmers  who  lived  near  their  field  outside  Dayton, 
and  with  the  local  newspapers,  that  no  notice  should 
be  taken  of  their  flights.  But  finally  one  of  their  flights 
attracted  so  much  attention  that  a  score  of  men  ap- 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        283 

peared  with  cameras,  and  the  Wrights  decided  that  it 
was  time  to  stop  their  experiments.  They  dismantled 
their  machines,  made  public  statements  of  what  they 
had  accomplished,  and  started  to  negotiate  with  vari- 
ous governments  for  the  purchase  of  their  aeroplanes 
for  use  in  war. 

In  December,  1907,  the  Signal  Corps  of  the  United 
States  army  invited  proposals  for  furnishing  a  "  heavier 
than  air  flying  machine."  The  Wrights  submitted  a  bid, 
proposing  to  deliver  a  machine  that  would  meet  the 
specifications  for  $25,000.  Their  offer,  with  those  of  two 
others,  was  accepted.  By  now  their  names  and  some- 
thing of  what  they  had  accomplished  were  very  gener- 
ally known,  and  when  they  began  the  preliminary  tests 
of  their  machines  at  their  old  grounds  at  Kitty  Hawk, 
near  Kill  Devil  Hills,  a  legion  of  reporters  was  on 
hand.  The  Wrights  still  tried  to  preserve  as  much 
secrecy  as  possible,  and  the  newspaper  men  to  furnish 
as  much  publicity.  The  flights  could  not  be  concealed 
and  the  trials  were  announced  as  thoroughly  satis- 
factory. On  May  10,  1908,  ten  ascensions  in  the 
government  airship  were  made,  the  longest  being  over 
a  mile  and  a  half.  On  succeeding  days  longer  flights 
were  made,  one  of  two  miles  at  a  speed  of  forty-six 
miles  an  hour.  Orville  Wright  made  a  flight  with  a 
passenger  on  board,  and  a  little  later  Wilbur  flew  eight 
miles,  at  a  rate  of  forty-five  miles  an  hour.  The  re- 
porters assured  the  world  that  the  Wrights  had  proved 
the  success  of  the  "  heavier  than  air  "  machine.  As  one 
of  them  wrote,  "  Then,  bedraggled  and  very  sunburned 
they  tramped  up  to  the  little  weather  bureau  and  in- 


284  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

formed  the  world,  waiting  on  the  other  side  of  various 
sounds  and  continents  and  oceans,  that  it  was  all  right, 
the  rumors  true,  and  there  was  no  doubt  that  a  man 
could  fly." 

Kitty  Hawk,  the  place  the  Wrights  had  chosen  be- 
cause the  Weather  Bureau  had  told  them  the  winds 
were  strongest  and  steadiest  there,  now  became  one  of 
the  chief  foci  of  the  world's  attention.  The  Wrights, 
still  quiet  and  unassuming,  suddenly  jumped  into  fame. 
The  public  could  not  understand  how  these  two  men, 
bicycle-makers  of  Dayton,  had  learned  so  much  about 
airships.  They  did  not  appreciate  that  the  brothers 
had  mastered  every  detail  of  flight  long  before,  that 
they  had  learned  the  fundamental  principles  of  soaring 
and  floating,  diving  and  rising,  circling  and  gliding, 
before  they  attached  the  first  motor  to  their  planes. 
They  had  been  far  more  thorough  and  more  resource- 
ful than  those  Europeans  who  had  for  some  time  ex- 
perimented with  aviation.  Henri  Farman,  who  had 
caused  a  sensation  in  Europe  by  flying  a  kilometer 
(five-eighths  of  a  mile)  over  a  circular  course  on  January 
13,  1908,  came  to  this  country,  and  heard  what  the 
United  States  government  was  requiring  in  the  tests. 
"  I  have  done  some  flying,"  said  he,  "  but  I  do  not  try 
to  do  what  your  inventors  must  do  at  Fort  Myer.  I 
never  fly  in  winds.  Once  I  had  a  spill  in  France  when 
I  attempted  it" 

The  government  trials  were  held  at  Fort  Myer,  out- 
side Washington.  Here  the  Wrights  took  their  ma- 
chines when  they  were  satisfied  that  they  were  in  shape 
for  the  tests.  Mr.  Augustus  Post,  secretary  of  the 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        285 

Aero  Club  of  America,  has  graphically  described  in 
The  World's  Work  for  October,  1909,  his  impression  of 
Orville  Wright's  flying  in  1908.  He  says  that  Mr. 
Wright  and  he  left  Washington  about  six  o'clock  on  a 
clear,  still  morning,  bound  for  the  flying  field.  "  The 
conditions  for  flight  were  perfect,"  he  continues.  "  Mr. 
Taylor,  Mr.  Wright's  mechanic,  got  out  the  machine 
and  it  was  placed  on  the  starting-rail.  The  weights 
were  raised,  and  Mr.  Wright  took  his  place.  None  of 
us  expected  anything  more  than  a  short  flight  down 
the  field,  with  possibly  a  circle.  The  machine  was  re- 
leased, and  away  he  went,  rising  higher  and  higher, 
circling  when  he  came  to  the  end  of  the  field  and  con- 
tinuing round.  I  had  taken  the  time  of  starting  and 
marked  on  the  back  of  an  envelope  each  circle  of  the 
field.  From  a  position  of  strained  attention  and  fixed 
gaze,  Mr.  Wright  gradually  became  more  confident 
and  comfortable  ;  round  and  round  he  went  for  fully 
twenty  minutes,  and  then  we  began  to  realize  that 
something  wonderful  was  taking  place.  Thirty  min- 
utes passed  ;  we  could  hardly  believe  it.  Mr.  Taylor 
came  up  and  said  :  '  Don't  make  a  motion ;  if  you  do, 
he'll  come  down ' ;  and  we  all  stood  like  statues,  watch- 
ing the  flying  man,  every  nerve  as  tense  in  our  bodies 
as  though  we  were  running  the  machine  ourselves. 
Mark  after  mark  I  made  on  the  back  of  the  old  envel- 
ope— so  many  that  I  had  lost  track  of  the  number  ;  it 
seemed  an  age  since  the  machine  started,  and  it  ap- 
peared to  be  fixed  in  the  sky.  We  were  impressed 
that  it  could  circle  on  forever,  or  sail  like  a  bird  over 
the  country,  so  positive  and  assuring  and  complete 


286  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

was  this  demonstration.     We  knew  that  the  problem 
of  flight  by  an  aeroplane  had  been  solved." 

An  accident  caused  the  flights  to  be  suspended  for  a 
time,  but  a  year  later  the  Wrights  were  ready  for  the 
official  endurance  test,  a  flight  of  one  hour,  carrying  a 
passenger.  President  Taft  and  a  great  audience  were 
present.  Lieutenant  Lahm  was  the  passenger.  Signal 
Corps  men  raised  the  weight  and  fastened  the  end  of 
the  starting  rope  to  the  aeroplane.  Wilbur  Wright,  at 
the  rear,  turned  the  propellers  and  started  the  motor. 
Orville  Wright  adjusted  the  spark,  and  took  his  seat. 
He  grasped  the  levers,  spoke  a  few  words  of  instruc- 
tion to  his  passenger,  seated  beside  him,  and  gave  the 
word  to  release  the  machine.  It  glided  down  the 
track,  gathering  speed  until  it  left  the  rails.  Then  the 
forward  planes  rose,  and  the  plane  soared  into  the  air, 
flying  swiftly.  It  circled  around  and  around,  each 
circle  taking  about  one  minute.  For  the  first  ten 
minutes  the  motor  did  not  move  smoothly,  but  after 
that  it  settled  to  perfection.  The  great  audience, 
watches  in  hand,  kept  their  eyes  on  the  airship.  The 
hour  mark  was  passed,  and  there  were  wild  shouts  of 
applause  and  encouragement.  Then  the  plane  broke 
the  world's  record  of  one  hour,  nine  minutes,  and 
forty  seconds,  that  Wilbur  Wright  had  made  earlier  in 
the  year.  Wilbur  Wright  led  in  a  cheer  to  those 
circling  above.  Then  the  airship  began  to  descend, 
taking  the  circles  easily,  and  finally  skimming  down  to 
the  ground.  The  motor  was  shut  off,  and  the  test  was 
ended,  the  machine  having  flown  for  one  hour,  twelve 
minutes,  and  forty  seconds.  President  Taft  crossed 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        287 

the  field  and  shook  Orville  Wright's  hand.  "I  am 
glad  to  congratulate  you  on  your  achievement,"  said 
he  ;  "  you  came  down  as  gracefully  and  as  much  like 
a  bird  as  you  went  up.  I  hope  your  passenger  be- 
haved himself  and  did  not  talk  to  the  motorman.  It 
was  a  wonderful  performance ;  I  would  not  have 
missed  it."  Then  he  turned  to  shake  hands  with 
Wilbur  Wright.  "  Your  brother  has  broken  your 
record."  "  Yes,"  said  the  other,  smiling,  "  but  it's  all 
in  the  family." 

Lieutenant  Lahm  said,  "The  machine  was  under 
perfect  control  at  all  times.  He  apparently  had 
given  no  conscious  thought  either  to  his  hands  or  to 
the  levers.  His  actions  all  seemed  involuntary.  It 
had  hardly  started  on  one  of  its  dips  before  his  hands 
were  moved  in  the  proper  direction  to  restore  the 
balance.  It  seemed  impossible  for  anything  to  go 
wrong.  I  never  knew  an  hour  to  pass  so  quickly  as 
that  one  up  in  the  air.  The  first  half  seemed  like  ten 
minutes,  and  the  second  scarcely  longer.  I  hardly  felt 
the  vibrations  of  the  engine,  but  at  first  the  rising  and 
dipping  were  hard  to  get  used  to.  The  only  disagree- 
able sensation  I  experienced  was  a  deafness  from  the 
whirring  motor.  Sometimes  the  undulating  movement 
was  noticeable,  but  that  was  all.  The  sensation  of  rid- 
ing the  air  in  an  aeroplane  is  indescribable." 

The  speed  test  came  on  the  day  following  the  en- 
durance flight.  This  was  to  be  made  over  a  measured 
course  of  five  miles  from  Fort  Myer  to  Alexandria,  and 
back,  making  a  total  flight  of  ten  miles  over  trees, 
railroads,  and  rough  country.  Aviators  declared  this 


288  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

a  more  difficult  course  than  the  crossing  of  the  English 
Channel,  owing  to  the  great  rises  and  drops  of  the 
land,  which  made  it  almost  impossible  to  maintain  a 
level  course.  Speed  was  a  very  important  factor  in 
the  government's  specifications  for  a  successful  airship, 
and  the  price  to  be  paid  depended  on  this,  which  had 
been  calculated  to  be  forty  miles  an  hour.  The  gov- 
ernment was  to  pay  the  Wrights  $25,000  for  the  air- 
ship, and  a  bonus  of  ten  per  cent.,  or  $2,500,  for  every 
mile  made  above  the  forty.  For  every  mile  less,  to 
the  minimum  limit  of  thirty-six  miles  an  hour,  the 
government  was  to  deduct  the  same  percentage. 

The  machine  that  was  making  these  tests  was 
very  similar  to  the  one  that  had  been  used  at  Fort 
Myer  the  year  before.  The  amount  of  supporting 
surface  had  been  reduced  by  about  eighty  square  feet, 
and  a  change  had  been  made  in  the  lever  that  turned 
the  rudder  and  controlled  the  equilibrating  device. 
This  had  originally  consisted  of  two  levers,  placed  side 
by  side.  Now  the  top  of  one  lever  was  jointed,  so 
that  a  sideways  movement  of  the  wrist  was  sufficient 
to  move  the  rudder  for  steering  in  the  horizontal  plane. 
Simultaneously  the  lever  could  be  pushed  forward  and 
pulled  back  to  lift  or  lower  the  opposite  tips  of  the 
wings.  In  this  way  one  hand  could  control  both  the 
steering  and  the  balancing  of  the  planes. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  wind  conditions  were  not 
exactly  as  he  wished  Orville  Wright  decided  to  make 
the  flight  for  speed  on  that  day.  He  made  a  good 
ascension,  carrying  Lieutenant  Benjamin  D.  Foulois 
with  him  as  passenger.  Twice  he  circled  the  field  in 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        289 

order  to  get  up  speed  and  reach  sufficient  elevation. 
Then,  amid  cheers  of  encouragement  from  the  immense 
throng  that  was  watching,  he  turned  sharply  past  the 
starting-tower  and  flew  between  the  flags  that  marked 
the  starting-line.  Two  captive  balloons  had  been 
floated  to  show  the  course  and  also  to  give  an  indication 
of  the  proper  altitude  to  maintain.  The  wind  tended  to 
carry  the  aeroplane  to  the  east,  but  Orville  Wright 
was  able  to  hold  it  on  a  fairly  even  course,  and  to 
reach  the  balloon  at  Shuter's  Hill  that  marked  the 
turning  point.  Here  the  official  time  was  taken  by 
officers  of  the  Signal  Corps.  On  the  return  the  air- 
ship met  with  strong  downward  currents  of  air  that 
bore  it  groundward  until  it  was  hidden  by  the  tops  of 
trees.  Mr.  Wright  said  afterward,  "  I  had  to  climb 
like  forty  all  the  way  back."  But  he  managed  to  send 
his  aeroplane  higher  and  higher,  and  to  bring  it  back 
over  the  heads  of  the  crowds  at  the  finish  line.  There 
it  swept  about  in  a  circle,  and  landed  easily  near  the 
aeroplane  shed.  What  aeronautical  authorities  de- 
clared to  be  the  greatest  feat  in  the  history  of  aviation 
had  been  successfully  accomplished.  The  elapsed  time 
of  the  flight  was  fourteen  minutes  and  forty-two  seconds, 
which  meant  that  the  airship  had  attained  a  speed  of  a 
little  more  than  forty-two  miles  an  hour.  The  condi- 
tions of  the  Wrights'  contract  with  the  government  had 
been  in  every  respect  more  than  fulfilled. 

The  Wrights  carried  Europe  by  storm,  being  re- 
ceived there  with  even  greater  acclamations  than  in 
America.  The  French,  as  a  nation,  had  for  some  time 
been  more  interested  in  aviation  than  any  other  people. 


290  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

France  was  the  home  of  Montgolfier,  Santos-Dumont, 
and  Farman.  At  first  France  looked  with  incredulity 
and  suspicion  on  the  Wrights'  claims.  The  French 
papers  accused  them  of  playing  le  bluff,  and  said  that 
"  they  argued  a  great  deal  and  experimented  very 
little,"  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  exactly  the  op- 
posite of  the  Wrights'  whole  history.  But  as  soon  as 
Wilbur  Wright  showed  what  he  could  actually  do,  all 
this  changed,  and  the  French  could  not  say  enough 
that  was  good  about  him.  Delagrange,  his  nearest 
competitor,  acknowledged  frankly  that  Wilbur  Wright 
was  his  superior  as  an  aviator.  But  he  could  not  under- 
stand the  American's  quiet  methods,  and  plan  of  pur- 
suing his  own  way  regardless  of  public  opinion.  He 
found  that  Wilbur  Wright  actually  preferred  to  fly 
without  an  audience,  and  thought  nothing  of  disap- 
pointing the  crowds  that  gathered  to  watch  him.  On  one 
such  occasion,  when  Wilbur  Wright  found  the  weather 
conditions  unsatisfactory,  he  declined  to  fly.  "  If  it  had 
been  I,"  said  Delagrange,  "  I  would  have  made  a  flight 
if  I  had  been  likely  to  smash  up  at  three  hundred  meters 
rather  than  disappoint  those  ten  thousand  people." 

This  novel  charm  of  simplicity  caught  the  French 
fancy.  The  Wrights  wanted  to  do  everything  for 
themselves.  At  Kitty  Hawk  they  had  lived  in  a  small 
shack,  and  cooked  their  own  meals.  Wilbur  Wright 
had  a  similar  shack  built  on  his  flying-field  in  France, 
and  planned  to  do  his  own  cooking.  But  this  was  too 
extreme  for  the  French  mind.  When  he  went  to  his 
shack  he  found  a  native  cook  installed  there,  and  had 
to  submit  to  the  hospitality  of  his  hosts. 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        291 

The  Wrights  were  organizing  companies  in  the  differ- 
ent countries  of  Europe,  and  wanted  to  attend  strictly 
to  their  business.  But  wherever  they  went  they  were 
feted.  They  met  the  French  President,  the  Kaiser,  the 
King  of  England,  and  the  King  of  Spain,  and  they 
were  dined  and  publicly  honored  in  all  the  great 
capitals.  Germany  turned  from  its  native  hero,  Count 
Zeppelin,  to  admire  them.  But  everywhere  they  kept 
that  same  quiet  tone.  They  showed  that  they  cared 
nothing  to  perform  hazardous  feats  simply  because  of 
the  hazard,  nor  to  establish  records.  Wilbur  Wright 
was  asked  if  he  would  not  try  for  the  prize  offered  to 
the  first  man  to  fly  across  the  English  Channel.  He 
said  he  would  not  at  that  time,  because  it  "  would  be 
risky  and  would  not  prove  anything  more  than  a  journey 
over  land."  And  the  public  knew  that  this  was  sensible 
caution,  and  not  lack  of  courage. 

Daring  aviators  sprang  into  fame  at  once.  Most  of 
these  built  their  machines  according  to  their  individual 
ideas,  and  there  was  a  great  trying-out  of  different 
patterns.  Bleriot,  a  Frenchman,  flew  across  the  English 
Channel  in  a  monoplane  in  thirty-eight  minutes.  In- 
stantly he  became  the  French  idol.  When  he  reached 
Paris  at  five  in  the  morning  an  enormous  crowd  wel- 
comed him,  and  the  cries  of  "  Vive  Bleriot ! "  could  be 
heard  for  squares.  He  was  dined  at  the  H6tel  de  Ville, 
given  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  money  was  sub- 
scribed for  a  monument  to  mark  the  place  near  Calais 
where  he  commenced  his  flight.  Shortly  after  Roger 
Sommer  rose  in  the  country  outside  Paris  on  a  moon- 
light night,  and  flew  for  two  hours,  twenty-seven 


292  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

minutes,  and  fifteen  seconds,  the  longest  flight  made  to 
that  time.  The  world  recognized  that  the  actual  in- 
vention of  the  airship  was  one  of  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments of  the  ages.  Said  the  London  Times,  "  It  is  no 
wonder  that  there  should  be  great  enthusiasm  in  France 
over  the  cross-Channel  flight  of  M.  Bleriot,  and  that  the 
French  papers  should  talk  of  nothing  else.  Further 
enthusiasm  will  doubtless  greet  the  gallant  attempt, 
which  was  all  but  successful,  of  M.  Latham  yesterday, 
to  repeat  the  achievement.  Since  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World  no  material  event  has  happened 
on  this  earth  so  impressive  to  the  imagination  as 
the  conquest  of  the  air  which  is  now  half  achieved. 
Indeed,  the  conquest  of  the  air  is  likely  to  be  more 
vast  and  bewildering  in  its  results  than  even  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World,  and  one  is  inclined 
to  wonder  that  men  should  take  it  as  calmly  as  they 
do." 

A  great  aviation  week  was  held  at  Rheims,  and 
almost  all  the  world's  famous  aviators,  except  the 
Wrights,  were  there.  Control  of  the  airships  was 
shown  to  a  remarkable  degree.  On  one  of  the  prep- 
aratory days  three  heavier  than  air  machines  were 
manoeuvring  in  the  great  aerodrome  at  the  same  time. 
They  were  flying  at  high  speed,  when  suddenly  Glenn 
H.  Curtiss,  an  American,  saw  an  Antoinette  aeroplane 
approaching  him  at  right  angles,  and  flying  upon  the 
same  level.  Instantly  he  elevated  the  planes  of  his 
machine,  and  his  aeroplane  obeyed  his  touch,  shot  up- 
ward, and  flew  over  the  Antoinette.  There  was  great 
applause  from  those  who  had  been  watching  him. 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        293 

The  manoeuvre  showed  how  easily  the  airships  were 
controlled. 

Germany  meantime  was  intensely  interested  in  Count 
Zeppelin's  dirigible  balloons,  which,  although  as  long 
as  a  battle-ship,  had  flown  with  great  success.  The 
German  government  paid  $1,250,000  into  the  Zeppelin 
fund  for  experiments,  and  contributed  a  large  sum  in 
addition  to  the  maintenance  of  a  balloon  corps.  The 
German  people  showed  themselves  as  proud  of  Count 
Zeppelin  as  the  French  were  of  Bleriot,  and  the  Ameri- 
cans of  the  Wrights. 

The  aviation  week  at  Rheims  was  followed  by  other 
great  airship  meets  in  other  countries.  The  Hudson- 
Fulton  Celebration  in  New  York  in  the  autumn  of  1909 
was  the  occasion  of  new  records  in  flying,  and  served 
to  awaken  Americans  to  a  more  intense  interest  in 
navigation  of  the  air.  That  meeting  was  followed  by 
others  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  competitions 
for  height  and  city-to-city  flights  became  matters  of 
weekly  occurrence.  Yet  America  has  not  so  far  reached 
the  intense  enthusiasm  over  flying  that  fills  the  lands 
of  Europe. 

The  airship  is  on  the  market,  ready  to  be  purchased 
by  whomsoever  will  pay  the  price.  The  London  daily 
papers  advertise  an  agency  that  will  supply  buyers 
with  either  the  Bleriot  monoplane  of  the  type  Calais- 
Dover,  the  Latham  or  Antoinette  monoplane,  or  the 
Wright  and  Voisin  biplanes.  Moreover  the  art  of 
handling  the  aeroplane  does  not  seem  unusually 
difficult  to  master,  provided  one  has  the  taste  for  it. 
Roger  Sommer  first  sat  in  an  airship  on  July  3d,  yet 


294  HISTORIC  INVENTIONS 

on  August  yth  following  he  made  a  world's  record 
flight  outside  Paris.  "  It  is  easier  to  learn  to  fly  than  it 
is  to  walk,"  Wilbur  Wright  has  said. 

The  only  American  machines  besides  the  Wrights' 
biplanes  which  have  made  a  name  for  themselves  are 
the  Curtiss  biplanes.  Mr.  Curtiss  is  one  of  the  most 
daring  aviators  in  the  world,  and  his  flight  down  the 
Hudson  River  attracted  the  widest  attention.  But 
there  are  questions  as  to  whether  his  aeroplanes  do  not 
infringe  on  certain  patent  claims  of  the  Wrights,  and 
his  flight  was  made  under  a  bond  that  should  protect 
the  Wrights  in  case  it  proved  later  that  his  biplane  did 
infringe  on  their  title.  Here  it  should  be  said  that  the 
Wrights  are  as  excellent  business  men  as  they  are 
inventors,  and  intend  to  receive  due  compensation  for 
their  years  of  work.  At  one  time  they  offered  to  sell 
their  invention  outright  for  $100,000,  but  since  then 
their  patents  have  been  upheld  by  the  courts,  and 
those  patents  cover  a  very  large  area  of  the  field  of 
airship  manufacture.  The  American  market  is  largely 
in  their  hands. 

Every  year  lighter  and  lighter  gas-engines  are  being 
made,  and  this  means  that  the  surplus  carrying  power 
of  the  aeroplane  can  be  increased.  Fuel  can  be  carried 
for  flights  of  greater  and  greater  distances,  and  rapid 
increases  of  speed  can  be  attained.  With  improve- 
ments in  safety  there  seems  no  limit  to  the  possibilities 
of  flight.  So  far  a  long  train  of  casualties  has  marked 
the  airship's  progress.  This  was  inevitable  when  men 
came  to  imitate  the  birds,  and  trust  themselves  to  the 
fickle  currents  of  the  air.  But  many  aviators  have 


THE  WRIGHTS  AND  THE  AIRSHIP        295 

been  drawn  from  a  reckless  class,  and  many  accidents 
have  been  due  to  a  desire  to  thrill  an  audience  rather 
than  to  learn  more  about  the  laws  of  flight.  The 
Wrights  have  held  to  the  wise  course.  They  care 
nothing  for  spectacular  performances  or  establishing 
new  records  for  their  own  glory.  Their  work  is  in  the 
shops,  devising  improvements  that  will  make  the  air- 
ship safer  and  better  fitted  for  commercial  uses.  They 
are  men  of  remarkable  balance,  and  it  was  their  quality 
of  unremitting  care  that  made  them  the  wonder  of 
Europe,  used  above  all  things  else  to  the  dramatic  in 
men's  flights  through  air. 


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THE  HISTORIC 

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